Only 6 out of the 16 teams remained in contention after a hectic ESL Pro League day 3. There were some major upsets(G2 getting knocked out), some teams finding momentum back(Na’Vi) and the all too familiar story of Astralis beating Team Liquid again. Here is a quick recap of all the action from Day 3.
Upper Bracket Final of ESL Pro League Day 3
1. EG VS Na’Vi
The two highlight matches of the day came from the upper bracket finals of both the groups.
In the first match Natus Vincere defeated Evil Geniuses 2:1 in a match where many expected EG to come out on top. Though Na’Vi lost the first map on Mirage 12:16 , they bounced back swiftly beating EG 16:5 on Dust II and 16:11 on Nuke. With Na’Vi winning the Bo3 series it was no surprise to see “S1mple” top fragging the entire server with 71 kills across 3 maps. With this win Na’Vi moved straight to the Semi finals while Eg will have to battle out once again in the Quarter finals against Fnatic.
2. Astralis vs Team Liquid
The second match saw Astralis once again conquering Team Liquid in a grueling Bo3 series. Liquid justified picking up Inferno as their map choice winning it 16:14 in a closely contested match. Astralis then comfortably beat Liquid on their map choice Nuke 16:7. Even though Liquid led the first half of the third map 6:9, Astralis came back from the deficit and won the map 16:13 to book the second semi final spot. “Naf” outperformed the entire server with 64 kills to his name.
Lower Bracket
The lower bracket matches were equally entertaining as the upper bracket and even produced some incredible storylines.
1. G2 Esports vs ATK Gaming
The first match arguably produced the result of the day with ATK knocking out previous season finalists G2 Esports. ATK beat G2 2:1 in a match which saw complete a turnaround after the first half of the second map by the South African and American squad. Trailing 5-10 on Train and switching to the less preferred ‘T’ side ATK played their hearts out and won the map 16:13. They then returned the thrashing to G2 on Inferno winning 16:6 after falling in the first map 4:16 on Vertigo. “JT” on the ATK side was the mvp of the series with 53 kills to his name.
2. Mousesports vs Renegade
The second match was held between Mousesports and Renegades which Mouz managed to win the series 2:1. The “karrigan” lead team won Train and Inferno easily while narrowly dropping Nuke 14:16. “Ropz” managed to get the most frags, top fragging with 69 kills across the 3 maps.
3. Fnatic vs 100 Thieves
Fnatic played the 100 Thieves in Group A Lower Bracket final which Fnatic won 2:0. Two inform and rejuvenated teams were up against one another and it was expected to be a psychedelic contest but it turned out to be anything like it. Fnatic won their map pick Train 16:13 and literally thrashed 100 Thieves 16:5 on Mirage. Fnatic after their recent squad revamp are looking ominous which surely is a danger sign for the rest of the teams. Vac god “flusha” topped the server with 48 kills!
4. ATK Gaming vs Mousesports
Mousesports and ATK had to go head to head later in the day to book the last remaining quater final spot. ATK after their marathon series against G2 could not produce a similar performance against Mouz and lost the series 2:0. Mouz thrashed ATK on both the maps winning 16:5 on Vertigo and 16:6 on Dust II. It was “chrisJ” this time who topped the scoring charts with 40 frags to his name.
