ESL Pro League Season 3 - Week 7 recap



NRG eSports have followed up to their recent string of successful matches in taking out Renegades on de_Cache and de_Train. Especially on the latter map, the Australians crumbled underneath their opponents in a devastating 16:2 loss. KKona have brought down a struggling compLexity on the second map. Now that roster changes for coL have been announced it does not really come as a surprise anymore that they are giving in to overall weaker opponents. OpTic Gaming have gotten a whopping two wins and six points from their Luminosity matchup without having to move a finger, as Luminosity have withdrawn from the match. Instead of moving it to another date, OpTic have gotten two default wins. This is a controversial practice and definitely unfair in regards to the teams that had to go up against LG and lost. The Canadian roster has thus boosted themselves from 7th place to 2nd, as the gap between the places was a mere six points.



NiP have finally shown the difference that their fifth would make when going up against FlipSid3. Two crushing victories have proven that it was sensible to keep their April Fools news a joke. SK were successful in taking out Virtus.Pro over the course of two maps. It is sad to see the Polish team dropping off again after their strong run against Luminosity in the quarter finals of MLG: Columbus. Especially Emil "Magiskboy" Reif had a great time on both maps. EnVyUs are continuing their downward spiral which we covered in an extensive feature already and are not looking great in terms of recovery of any kind. Especially de_Inferno, on which they have been the best team for some time, they have not delivered in any way.



As Ryan "fREAKAZOID" Abadir was unable to compete momentarily, Cloud9's coach Andrew "Irukandji" Timmerman had to step in. His performance has not quite been up to what fREAK could have delivered, but the 8:16 and 5:16 losses show that it was not just about one player missing out. C9 are still struggling in maintaining their performance level which had experienced a sudden stop at MLG Columbus after falling to G2 ESports in an embarrassing fashion in just the group stages. Liquid have, as expected, taken down OpTic on de_Cobblestone and de_Train. To some extent at least they are able to keep the level they have shown at MLG despite missing Eric "adreN" Hoag. NRG have, similarly to OpTic, gotten two default wins following the forfeit of CLG. It has undoubtedly contributed to their overall standing as they are now sitting on 5th place with 36 points, just as all the teams up to 2nd place have. At this point it comes down to overall round difference and it will be interesting to see the remaining matches, as all of these teams are sitting on 18 played matches each.