Week 3 of the ESL Pro Series Season IX Is Here! February 20th marks the start of Week 3 of the ESL Pro Series Season IX, and tonight’s two matches will determine if the top of the standings will remain unchanged, or if a new team will rise. Starting off the week will be a battle of the sister teams with Team LoLPro taking on Curse Academy on Thursday at 6:30pm PST. Right after that, Girlfriends will storm onto the Rift to face one of the top teams on the standings so far, Cloud 9 HyperX Tempest.The action will continue on Friday, February 21st with NoDice Gaming, who has replaced Crossover eSports in the season, taking on compLexity.Red. Wrapping up the week will be Parabellum eSports against the champions of the North American Challenger Series, LMQ Tc iBUYPOWER.



Curse Academy vs Team LoLPro (2/20/14 17:30PST)



For our first matchup this week we have sister teams Curse Academy and Team LoLPro competing for dominance. Curse Academy, who had a strong showing last week with its new roster against Girlfriends, will be out to prove that despite these changes, it will remain a strong contender.



Our featured matchup for this game are the top laners, Rhux and Hauntzer. In his last match in the EPS against Girlfriends, Rhux went 8/1/4 and 4/0/7 in two games as Shyvana and Renekton. Hauntzer pulled out a terrifying Renekton recently in the North American Challenger League, ending with a score of 12/3/7 in two games. Both players are well-versed in the tanky top lane meta, so it will be interesting to see how these players will affect teamfights in the frontline.



Girlfriends vs Cloud 9 HyperX Tempest (2/20/14 20:00PST)



Up next Girlfriends will be taking on C9 HyperX Tempest in a matchup that might determine if Cloud 9 will remain at the top of the standings with Curse Academy, or if they will be dropped down a notch.



For the featured matchup of this game, we’ll be taking a look at the AD Carries, otter and Altec. In their second game against Curse Academy, otter pulled out an impressive Lucian and managed to pick up 2 early kills as well as out-CSing DontMashMe’s Sivir until the 14 minute mark. The match ended with otter going 5/2/2 and nearly matched MashMe in CS. In C9T’s first match against NoDice Gaming, Altec played Caitlyn to great effect and pushed the opposing Sivir out of lane early on. This allowed Altec’s lane to snowball heavily and create a vast CS difference that couldn’t be recovered.





NoDice Gaming vs compLexity.Red (2/21/14 17:30PST)



NoDice Gaming is the most recent addition to the EPS, having taken the place of Crossover eSports, and will be playing against compLexity.Red, formerly Skyline. NoDice has had several roster changes over the past few weeks before finally becoming stable. coL.Red, a team that rose quickly in the Challenger 5v5 ladder, competed in Riot’s North American Challenger Series, only to get knocked out in the semifinals by LMQ Tc. They turned their luck around in the third place match against COGnitive Gaming, beating them 2-1. NoDice Gaming will have its hands full against this newly acquired compLexity team.



Our players to watch for this matchup are the top laners McCashDollar and Jezie. Jezie led his team in KDA at 2.64 by the end of the NACS using a combination of Rumble and tanky top laners such as Renekton. McCashDollar will need to outplay Jezie in the early game to minimize the impact Jezie will have in the mid-late game should he use a tank.



Parabellum eSports vs LMQ Tc iBUYPOWER (2/21/14 20:00PST)



The final match for day two will include Chinese powerhouse and NACS champions LMQ Tc iBUYPOWER. LMQ Tc, formerly a team in the LPL(Lol Pro League), moved to North America to compete in the Challenger scene and aim to qualify for the LCS 2014 Summer Split. So far they have yet to lose a best of 3 or best of 5 series, which marks them as a fierce contender for NA Challengers. Parabellum eSports, formerly y so eSports, have a lot to prove coming into the match.



The players to watch for this game are the mid laners, XiaoWeiXiao and Mikasa. XiaoWeiXiao, who goes by WeiXiao in North America, spends a lot of his time farming in the early game while regularly going aggressive when his opponent gets close, which often leads to early kills being given to WeiXiao with the help of his jungler, NoName. WeiXiao has broken tournament CS records during his play in the NACS, although there is some debate on if those games count as they are not really professional games. Look out for this matchup to see if Mikasa will be able to take down the Chinese titan WeiXiao.



For our first matchup this week we have sister teams Curse Academy and Team LoLPro competing for dominance. Curse Academy, who had a strong showing last week with its new roster against Girlfriends, will be out to prove that despite these changes, it will remain a strong contender.Our featured matchup for this game are the top laners, Rhux and Hauntzer. In his last match in the EPS against Girlfriends, Rhux went 8/1/4 and 4/0/7 in two games as Shyvana and Renekton. Hauntzer pulled out a terrifying Renekton recently in the North American Challenger League, ending with a score of 12/3/7 in two games. Both players are well-versed in the tanky top lane meta, so it will be interesting to see how these players will affect teamfights in the frontline.Up next Girlfriends will be taking on C9 HyperX Tempest in a matchup that might determine if Cloud 9 will remain at the top of the standings with Curse Academy, or if they will be dropped down a notch.For the featured matchup of this game, we’ll be taking a look at the AD Carries, otter and Altec. In their second game against Curse Academy, otter pulled out an impressive Lucian and managed to pick up 2 early kills as well as out-CSing DontMashMe’s Sivir until the 14 minute mark. The match ended with otter going 5/2/2 and nearly matched MashMe in CS. In C9T’s first match against NoDice Gaming, Altec played Caitlyn to great effect and pushed the opposing Sivir out of lane early on. This allowed Altec’s lane to snowball heavily and create a vast CS difference that couldn’t be recovered.NoDice Gaming is the most recent addition to the EPS, having taken the place of Crossover eSports, and will be playing against compLexity.Red, formerly Skyline. NoDice has had several roster changes over the past few weeks before finally becoming stable. coL.Red, a team that rose quickly in the Challenger 5v5 ladder, competed in Riot’s North American Challenger Series, only to get knocked out in the semifinals by LMQ Tc. They turned their luck around in the third place match against COGnitive Gaming, beating them 2-1. NoDice Gaming will have its hands full against this newly acquired compLexity team.Our players to watch for this matchup are the top laners McCashDollar and Jezie. Jezie led his team in KDA at 2.64 by the end of the NACS using a combination of Rumble and tanky top laners such as Renekton. McCashDollar will need to outplay Jezie in the early game to minimize the impact Jezie will have in the mid-late game should he use a tank.The final match for day two will include Chinese powerhouse and NACS champions LMQ Tc iBUYPOWER. LMQ Tc, formerly a team in the LPL(Lol Pro League), moved to North America to compete in the Challenger scene and aim to qualify for the LCS 2014 Summer Split. So far they have yet to lose a best of 3 or best of 5 series, which marks them as a fierce contender for NA Challengers. Parabellum eSports, formerly y so eSports, have a lot to prove coming into the match.The players to watch for this game are the mid laners, XiaoWeiXiao and Mikasa. XiaoWeiXiao, who goes by WeiXiao in North America, spends a lot of his time farming in the early game while regularly going aggressive when his opponent gets close, which often leads to early kills being given to WeiXiao with the help of his jungler, NoName. WeiXiao has broken tournament CS records during his play in the NACS, although there is some debate on if those games count as they are not really professional games. Look out for this matchup to see if Mikasa will be able to take down the Chinese titan WeiXiao. To see all the action go down be sure to tune in here from 5:30pm PST today and Friday and not miss a minute of the action here on the National ESL Pro Series! 8196851 , Thursday, 20/02/14 17:18