Group B started the day with a four-way tie, but left with a second elimination with tie breakers likely on the way.
In the first game of the day, G2 became the first team in the inevitable 2-way tie by knocking FaZe out of playoff contention. G2 claimed FaZe’s first map pick, Nuke, which backfired on FaZe immediately as they left the first half trailing 9-6. Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken was critical in picking up odd rounds for FaZe, but ultimately Finn “karrigan” Anderssen and Marcel “coldzera” David’s cold starts were too much of a detriment. G2 claimed the map 16-9 with Nemanja “huNter-” Kovac clutching out the final round.
Twistzz once again led FaZe on Inferno, finding his team an early 6-1 lead as he went 9/2/0. Though Francois “AmaNEk” Delaunay had some stellar rounds once again as G2’s AWPer, FaZe still managed to keep G2 at a 9-6 deficit. A great crossfire by Nikola “Niko” Kovac and huNter- turned the whole game around for G2, going on a 7-1 streak to take the map 16-13.
FaZe flounder in the group stage was certainly a surprise, but perhaps a growing pain as Karrigan integrates with the roster further.
In a tightly contested 2-1 victory over mousesports, NIP certainly helped their playoff chances by joining the top teams of Group B at a 3-1 record. Though losing Inferno 9-16, Hampus “hampus” Poser turned the series around for NIP starting on Dust2. Taking an early lead, both in rounds and economy, mousesports saw a brief resurgence by winning an unlikely econ round. Hampus closed out the map 23 kills however, ending the map 16-9.
Mirage was the closest map, Hampus outdoing himself with 32 frags, 9 first kills, and dealing 100 DPR. The series ultimately fell to NIP as they closed out Mirage 16-14. The playoff potential for the Swedes is looking much better now that mousesports and FaZe are both eliminated.
ENCE have performed shockingly well so far in ESL Group Stage, upsetting G2 and now adding Vitality to the list as they won their match-up 2-0. Most of ENCE’s success has come off the back of Lotan “Spinx” Giladi, however this series proved that the team is far more multifaceted than originally thought. Though losing in the first half of Nuke, ENCE kept Vitality to two rounds to end the mao 10-16.
Aleksi “Allu” Jalli was the star of Dust2, finding 15 AWP kills, 26 overall frags, and ending with 1.73 overall rating. The back and forth map ended in ENCE’s favor ultimately going 9-16. With this win, ENCE has clenched a spot in the ESL playoffs but whether or not they take the top spot in the group remains to be seen.
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