The seventh edition of ESL Pro League came to an end this weekend. From the 16 teams fighting for the $750.000 prizepool in Dallas, it was Astralis who outperform Team Liquid in ESL Pro League Season 7 finals.

For months there was no clear number #1 team in the world. It started with FaZe, Cloud9 and SK have not managed to keep up their performances. Then, FNATIC and Mousesports rose as possible contenders to replace these teams. In the end, it was Astralis who came up on top.

If it hadn’t been for ‘Kjaerbye’ decision to leave Astralis, they wouldn’t be here today. As firstly seen as a snake by fans, his decision to leave Astralis was for the best. As you may recall Astralis started dropping in ranks in the last couple of months in 2017.

It may have appeared as if only the Danes turned up in Dallas, Astralis triumphed over Liquid to win the EPL Season 7 on the recently-returned map, send out a strong message that they are the strongest team in the world right now. While we certainly need to talk about the Danes, there’s some other matters to consider.

We review what else went down in Dallas at EPL Season 7.

Ninjas in Pyjamas disappoints

Coming into Dallas, we expected great things from Ninjas in Pyjamas. The team who had been a serious contender reached every event playoff after adding ‘dennis’ but it appears that their winning streak is over.

This last week we saw NiP knocked out of Dallas in last place. The team were completely overwhelmed by SK in a Bo1 opening match and then the real disappointment followed.

In the first elimination match, the Ninjas faced the Danish OpTic Gaming squad. Their opponents were clearly less structured and this was their first LAN, NiP presumably had everything in their favor.

In Mirage, the first map of the BO3, NiP had a disastrous T-side where they could only get one round. In the following map, they had a better game but their star rifler ‘REZ’, their star rifler didn’t show up. With this, OpTic closed the game 2 – 0 and send NiP home.

NiP have identified the problem, can they fix it in time for the Major qualifiers?

The Major qualifiers are soon approaching and NiP’s team issues are not making fans comfortable. The team’s next tournament starts next week in Kiev with StarSeries i-League Season V.

Fortunately, they have time and StarSeries will allow the Swedes to iron out their issues. F0rest, one of squad’s legendary players has pointed out their main already pointed out their problem in an interview last week:

“I think the conclusion we gather as a team for the past week, even before coming to this tournament, is that we’re really lacking – which is kind of weird – the communication, it’s not nearly where we want it to be. We’re doing a lot of, in my opinion, rookie mistakes, mistakes that shouldn’t happen at this level and communication issues that shouldn’t even happen.”

Team Liquid resurges

While Cloud9, NRG and other NA teams failed to impress on home soil in Dalles, Liquid did. Nitro’s squad took on the task to represent their region. Liquid did great job in Dallas.

Other than Astralis, not a single team could take a map of Team Liquid. Mousesports and Na’Vi, the two other possible contenders of the tournament were beaten 2 – 0 by the NA powerhouse. Even Astralis had a hard time against Nitro and company.

With this, Liquid should certainly claim the temporarily crown for the best team in the region and leave Cloud9 behind.

Liquid step up the competition for the second place in the world rankings

FNATIC and Mousesports going to a rough patch compared to two months ago. This leaves the title for ‘second-best team in the world’ is up for grabs.

Currently, Na’Vi and FaZe are contenders but if Liquid deleiver in Kiev next week, they will enter the contest.

Well worth a mention Liquid’s dominance at EPL. Much of it was thanks to their new player, TACO. The Brazilian certainly brought something that ‘steel’ couldn’t and that a lot of teams are lacking – a strong support player.

Liquid’s next tournament will be the StarSeries i-League Season V starting next week. There, ELiGE, Twistzz and NAF will definitely put up a serious fight for the trophy.

OpTic Gaming put out a strong message

It was hard to expect something of OpTic Gaming coming into Dallas. The team didn’t have much time to practice and this was their first LAN. To make things even worse, they drew Astralis as their first opponent. Yet they left a strong impression of what is to come.

OpTic didn’t even get a look in with Astralis in their opening game but surprised in their next match. In their BO3 against NiP, they beat the Swedes with a 2–0 scoreline. They went on to face Space Soldiers who were also taken out with a 2 – 0 score.

They didn’t qualify for the playoffs. OpTic were taken down by SK Gaming much of win was thanks to a bad map pick. Should the Danes have picked Mirage instead of Dust 2, they could also had beaten the Brazilians with a 2–0.

STYKO rumoured to be booted yet again

After ELEAGUE Major Boston 2018, STYKO was rumoured to be kicked out of Mouz in favor of Dennis. He clearly has been the weak link and we’ve all witnessed him crumbling under pressure.

We know that Mousesports isn’t closed about the possibility of an upgrade, but is STYKO really the problem?

The 22-year-old Slovakian took on the support role and we know that these players provide the backbone needed. Unless there’s a clear upgrade which the team is fully comfortably with, Mouz should try to work with what they have for now.

Anyway, the possible solutions for Mousesports are a more of extensive matter that deserve a bigger discussion. For now, they will be defending their title at StarSeries i-League Season V next week.

Na’Vi surprised without relying entirely on s1mple

One cannot speak of Na’Vi without its star player s1mple. The Ukrainian carried his team for most of 2017. Now he finally has a more capable Na’Vi backing him up but this didn’t make him any shier.

Still putting on a stellar performances over 2018, it was in Dallas that we saw a humbler s1mple. Having a pretty average performance thoughout the tournament, his team still managed to reach the semifinals. This, in the past, would be impossible for Na’Vi.

In Dallas, Electronic was the one who stepped up when his team most needed. But the system in which Na’Vi is built on is running on an old meta of the pro scene. Nowadays, teams can’t rely entirely in a player coming up with great performance to be relevant.

The possibility of replacing Edward, their support player who shined in Marseille but has gone quiet again remains. Should Na’Vi start looking for replacements for him before the Major?

Natus Vincere still remain a threat to every team

If there was one thing we observed in Dallas about Na’Vi is that not even a fully confident FaZe could stop them. The team is looking even better now and it just confirmed what we witnessed at Dreamhack Masters Marseille.

Right now, Natus Vincere is up there with FaZe and Liquid competing for the second place and a possible contender for Astralis’ throne.

Next week going to Kiev, they have an opportunity to face up to main rivals, Liquid. The excitement for a possible encounter between the two teams is highly likely and we’re in for a memorable rivalry.

Astralis recover from Sydney and take the throne as the best team in the world

If there were any doubts surrounding Astralis’ Best team in the world’ title after Sydney, they have been destroyed. Astralis simply rolled over every opponent in Dallas to take the trophy.

The most unexpected encounter of the Danes was the rematch of IEM Sydney 2018 grand finals where they lost to FaZe 0 – 3. This time however, Karrigan squad couldn’t even touch Astralis. More impressive yet – FaZe couldn’t get 10 rounds in the two maps combined of their BO3.

This statistic sum up Astralis superiority over other teams. FaZe won at Sydney however highlighted there were still some issues to solved back then.

Solid Results from an involuntary change

After the ELEAGUE Major Boston 2018, Astralis was in dire state. The team who supposedly planned no changes to their roster received some shocking news. Kjaerbye, the team’s star, left without any warning.

Looking for a quick replacement, Astralis added Magisk. The young Danish that flourished in 2016 version of Dignitas had a harsh 2017. After losing his best spots in North and then getting kicked, he was added to the failed International mix of OpTic Gaming.

With OpTic crumbling, Astralis saw Magisk as a temporary replacement but in the end, he restored the team. Bringing the firepower that Kjaerbye couldn’t, gla1ve systems were renewed and we saw a ferocity in dev1ce and dupreeh that we hadn’t in months.

Astralis took their time to adapt but that is now well over this period and the team is playing in full force. In Marseille, they posed as possible contenders for the best team in the world, now they concretised this and took the throne for the time being.

What next….

With EPL Season 7 reaching a conclusion, we will still have a set of premier events scheduled. Coming up next in June, we will have StarSeries i-League Season V. Then we will close June with ECS Season V Finals and finally ESL One Belo Horizonte.

After these three tournaments, the elite teams will enjoy a quick break for the rest of June. As always, however, other LANs will still be taking place and Gambit and North fans should look forward to these.

The next star quality tournament featuring every top team will take place in July, ESL One Cologne 2018. There we should expect to see Astralis defending their throne over the contenders risen over June.

An event to look forward in June is the French shuffle that should be starting this week. If the presumed encounter between shox, smithZz, ex6tenz and KennyS happens, there’s going to be another high-level challenge coming in.

Don’t matter where the LAN will be happening, we will be having the predictions and analysis for them and you can follow them right here.