In Week 4 of the ESL CS:GO Pro League, we return with more exciting professional action, and the expectation of more leaderboard shuffling with a plethora of key matches taking place.

The ESL Pro League Season 5 continues this week after the season started to really heat up, across both regions, with some unexpected results, and setbacks, in the third week of online action. By the end of the week, the leaderboard had witnessed some significant changes, and with all 28 teams competing this week, featuring some big matchups, we could be looking at another week of big changes.

Here is everything you need to know for the fourth week of Season 5!

EUROPE

Standings

At the end of Week 3, mousesports remained at the top of the European standings after obtaining a total of 21 points from eight matches played, putting together a very respectable 7-1 win/loss record, considering the loss of star player Nikola “NiKo” Kovač. Just sitting behind the mouz side in second place, on 15 points, is FaZe Clan, the team that have now acquired the professional services of Kovač.

Outside of mousesports and FaZe, there is seven teams that currently sit on 12 points. Therefore, as the season continue to develop, it will be fascinating to watch and see how many team’s begin to let some crucial points slide away from them, and how many of the big name lineups are sitting outside of the qualification zone going into the final few weeks. One of those big name sides is Ninjas in Pyjamas who are still yet to obtain a single point from six matches played. Maybe this will be their week to get some points on the board.

Below, you can find the updated version of the Europe ESL Pro League Season 5 standings at the the end of week three:

Hot Match of the Week - Astralis versus North

This week’s Hot Match of the Week for the European region features a Danish battle between major champions Astralis, and the side that have really started to cause a storm, North.

Considering their offline performance this year, and since the addition of Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander, most people would have expected the number one team in the world to get off to a better start. However, since the beginning of the ESL Pro League Season 5, the Danes have put together a 4-4 win/loss record, accumulating a total of 12 points.

However, last week, Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz was diagnosed with Hiatus Hernia so was unable to play in a key match against Virtus.pro, but the match still went ahead as the lineups coach, and former CS 1.6 professional, Danny “zonic” Sørensen, stood in. Unfortunately for Astralis, this led to some key points being lost as the Polish veterans went onto take both maps, 16-8 and 19-15. This week, Astralis will look to completely turn things around by winning all of their matches against North and Heroic as there is a number of teams chasing a spot in the qualification zone.

At the beginning of the year, whilst Astralis was winning championships, and topping the CS:GO rankings, North were putting in their own bit of work, and gradually making into the top 5 best teams in the world with a 5th-8th place finish at ELEAGUE Major 2017, 3rd place at DreamHack Masters Las Vegas, and most recently, 5th-6th at IEM Katowice. If their LAN performance continues the way it is, with some changes to counter the likes of Astralis and SK Gaming, I definitely believe North will have a win under their belt in the next few months.

In an online capacity, North have seen some positive results, as over the three weeks of gameplay, and six matches played, they have put together a total of 12 points with a 4-2 win/loss record. These results put them in seventh place, one position outside of the LAN finals qualification zone, but with two games in hand over the majority of teams, we could see further big changes to the top six teams in the regions standings. On top of this, with the matches that North have coming up over the next two-three weeks against Team EnVyUs, Heroic, and HellRaisers, we could be in for a right treat.

Tune into the YouTube exclusive livestream at 21:20 CET to watch the Danish sides go head to head.

NORTH AMERICA

Standings

Going into Week 4, it is SK Gaming that leads the pack in the North American standings after taking over Cloud9 with two map wins over other Brazilian side, Luminosity Gaming. With their flawless 8-0 win/loss record, the Brazilian have put together a grand total of 24 points. SK literally couldn’t ask for a better start to their ESL Pro League campaign, and I think we can now guarantee that we’ll be seeing them in Dallas, Texas in June.

In the North American region, all teams have now played eight out of their 28 matches, and if we look at the matches to be played in the coming, as well as the qualification zone, we could say it’s getting a little bit tight. I guess that’s what you expect at the highest level of competitive play. Excluding SK Gaming, and obviously the NA ‘Kings of Pro League,’ Cloud 9, we can’t really predict which lineups will be travelling to Texas, and which of them will just fall short.

Below, you can find an updated look at the North American ESL Pro League Season 5 standings at the end of week three:

Hot Match of the Week - Cloud9 versus Misfits

This week’s Hot Match of the Week for the North American region again features the NA ‘Kings of Pro League,’ Cloud9, and Misfits, a side that is currently being able to compete against some of North America’s better sides, regardless of featuring some players that are inexperience at the top tier.

Although Cloud9 have been unable to retain their flawless record in the ESL Pro League Season 5, it still remains in very good shape with a 7-1 win/loss record, putting them in second place, behind SK Gaming, with a total of 21 points. Over recent times, their offline results have not replicated their online performance, however, we could see a change in pace for the North American lineup as they will compete at the cs_summit 2017 at the end of April.

If you take everything into consideration, I definitely see C9 taking this match without any major difficulties from the Misfits side, but as we all know with CS:GO, things out of the ordinary can happen on any given day. If Misfits does somehow take both of the maps from Cloud9, it shouldn’t too much of an issue with the position that they are in, and some of the matches they have coming up, including compLexity Gaming, and Selfless Gaming.

Cloud9’s opponents, Misfits, have found themselves on the cusp line of the qualification zone, in xith place, after a relatively good start to their Pro League campaign, especially with matches against Team Liquid and Counter Logic Gaming. This position in the league has been put together with a 5-3 win/loss record after eight matches played, acquiring a total of 15 points. CLG and OpTic Gaming also sit on 15 points after eight matches.

It’s going to take a lot of hard work on the day, but at least one map win against Cloud9 could give Misfits the boost that they will need for the other matches that they have in Week 5 and 6 with matches against SK Gaming and OpTic Gaming.

As well as the ESL Pro League Season 5, Misfits are also competing in the ECS Season 3 NA Development League in hopes of securing one of the four spots in the ECS League that are up for grabs. Currently, Misfits sit in first place with 11 points from five matches played, and with only a few days left of ECS’s development league, we could be seeing the North American side in ECS Season 3.

Tune into the YouTube exclusive livestream at 18:20 PT to watch the two North American sides battle it out for the six points that are up for grabs.

Here comes week 4!

Tune into the ESL CS:GO YouTube channel to watch your favourite team’s fight for their spot at the LAN finals later this year in Dallas, Texas. If you want to watch the season finals live, you can purchase tickets while they are still available.

For live coverage, and all of the latest updates on the ESL Pro League, be sure to follow ESL Counter-Strike on Twitter and Facebook.