After nine grueling, and intense, weeks of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive action, it came down to one night to decide which four teams would be receiving an invite to the offline finals in London, England next month. In last week’s roundup, we recommended that you were looking out for a number of matches throughout the night, especially, Natus Vincere versus mousesports and G2 Esports versus Ninjas in Pyjamas as Na`Vi and G2 looked to secure their invite.

In order for Natus Vincere to qualify for the offline finals, they would have needed to win both maps in their series against mousesports, whilst G2 losing both of their matches, or only taking one map from the series against Ninjas in Pyjamas. The CIS lineup started strong with an average 16-10 win over mouse on de_dust2. However, it wasn’t to be as on the second map, de_cache, mousesports got their revenge and won 16-10. In the other match, G2 Esports versus Ninjas in Pyjamas, G2 started off strong in securing their spot at the offline finals with a 16-13 win on de_cobble, but then went onto lose the second map in the series, de_dust2, 16-10.

It is now time for us to take a look at the completed season standings and some of the best highlights from the crucial matches in the final day of action - let’s get into it!

Standings

At the end of week eight, we saw Swedish side, Ninjas in Pyjamas, secure first place in the European division with Astralis, Fnatic, G2 Esports and Natus Vincere trailing. Going into the final day of action, it was more than likely that alongside Ninjas in Pyjamas, Astralis and Fnatic would be receiving the second and third invite to the offline finals, but it was up in the air on which team would be receiving the fourth and final invite, G2 Esports or Natus Vincere. However, at the end of the night, it was decided which of those teams would be receiving the final invite.

Below you can find a list of the teams that will be comepting in the offline finals in May;

Ninjas in Pyjamas

Astralis

Fnatic

G2 Esports

Taking that into account, here are a number of teams who no longer have the ability to qualify for the ESL Pro League Season 3 LAN finals, including;

Natus Vincere

Team Dignitas

FaZe

Mousesports

Team EnVyUs

SK Gaming

FlipSide3 Tactics

Virtus.pro



Below you can find the complete European ESL Pro League Season 3 standings at the end of the nine qualifying weeks.



Click to enlarge

Highlights of the week

The game changer

As they looked to secure their spot in the ESL Pro League Season 3 finals, Natus Vincere would have to defeat mousesports 2-0, but also rely on Ninjas in Pyjamas taking at least one map away from G2 Esports. After taking the first map against the German side, Na`Vi looked confident going into Cache, with a comfortable 10-5 lead as the teams switched sides. However, things got flipped upside down for Na`Vi as Johannes “nex” Maget pulled off an ace in the second half pistol round.

Another one

In the final map of the series against mousesports, Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund is stuck in a difficult 1 versus 3 situation with the players cornering him in the middle of the map. With that being said, this is GeT_RiGhT we are talking, a veteran of the game. With precise aim, the Swede manages to pull off two quick kills onto his opposition, and with seconds to go, Alesund pulls off the third kill with a wild spray.

Team of the week

Regardless of any other performance, the team of the week was either going to be Natus Vincere or G2 Esports, solely depending on which team received the fourth invite to the ESL Pro League Season 3 finals in May. Taking that into account, we have chosen G2 Esports as the team of the week for the final day of online action in the season.

It has been a worrying couple of weeks for the French team with Natus Vincere and Team EnVyUs being on their tail, but they just managed to scrape past them, and the rest of their opposition. However, in their final matches they prevailed as drew the two-map series against first place winners, Ninjas in Pyjamas. In the first map of the series, G2 started out strong with a 16-13 win on de_cobble, but went onto lose a tight match against NiP, 16-10.

Tune into the ESL Pro League Season 3 finals in May!

With online play of the ESL Pro League now concluded, we now wait just less than two weeks to see Ninjas in Pyjamas, Astralis, Fnatic and G2 Esports compete in the offline finals alongside the top four teams from the North American division.

It has been announced that the ESL Pro League Season 3 finals will be played in Leicester and London, with the teams to compete for a share of the US$750,000 prize pool. Tickets are now available, so don’t forget to get yours here!

You can find out all the information that you require for the ESL Pro League Season 3 finals here, and for continued CS:GO and the ESL Pro League updates, be sure to follow ESL CS on Twitter and Facebook!

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