Visit Shop

It’s Finals time! The last week of the online portion of ESL Pro League Season 6 has concluded. Here are the winners and losers.

That’s it for the online portion of ESL Pro League Season 6 Ladies & Gents. The Road to Odense has been a long and strenuous one for all participants. Some of the clear-cut favorites didn’t make it to the end of that road. Most notably title-defenders G2 and Cloud9. Both wasted their chance to clinch a ticket to Denmark in the very last week.

In the relegation domain, Ghost Gaming and BIG are our candidates for demotion. Both came through MDL and were mostly in over their heads in the world’s toughest league.

Rogue and Immortals from NA, as well as GODSENT and Na’Vi from EU will play relegations matches against the number two and three seeded teams from MDL to try and remain in EPL.

Finally and most importantly, we have the twelve teams from both regions who will descend upon Odense in a month’s time to fight for that coveted Pro League trophy.

Check out how the final week played out.

EUROPE

Heading into the final week, the most anticipated battle was going to be the one for the sixth and final playoff ticket.

The first five ranked teams, FaZe, Fnatic, North, Astralis and NiP were mostly fighting for superior seeding. Yes, especially NiP and Astralis were theoretically still in danger, but only if everything went wrong. Spoiler alert, nothing did.

As already alluded to, the sixth and final spot to clinch the playoff ticket was heavily contested. G2 claimed it for the time being, with LDLC, Hellraisers and mousesports hot on their heels, and only two points behind.

LDLC and mouz dropped out of the race for sixth prematurely. G2 and Hellraisers fought until the very last round, with the CIS team coming out ahead. G2 failed to take a single map against Fnatic, whereas Hellraisers seized the opportunity with two wins against GODSENT.

In the lower half of the rankings, BIG find themselves at the very bottom. Their start into the season was promising, but things went downhill from there. With only a single victory and ten losses in their last eleven matches, the surprise team from the major weren’t able to establish oneself in EPL and get demoted to MDL again.

Na’Vi, who occupied the last rank for most of the season managed to reach relegation, just like GODSENT. Both are facing MDL teams to remain in Pro League.

Check out the final standings of ESL Pro League Season 6 Europe:

Match Of The Week Recap – G2 vs. Fnatic

As we had predicted in our preview for the week, this match was crucial in deciding the fate of the French. Before the two sides joined the server, it was simple. If kennyS and his boys wanted to control their own fate, they needed one map.

Cbble and Inferno were going to be the battlegrounds to reach that goal, maps the French are very good on, but as it turned out, not good enough on that day, as Fnatic took both.

We never got to see the urgency that is needed in these situations. shox and his boys were always one step behind the simply superior Fnatic. Ultimately, last season’s champs didn’t do enough to book their trip to Denmark and therefore deserve their fate, because the Hellraisers, who fought another Swedish teams at the same time, scrambled for that spot in the latter half of the season with incredible persistence.

North America

OpTic and SK dominated all season long and finish well ahead of the rest of the field. Liquid come in at third. Ranks four through six is where it gets interesting.

Somehow, CLG, who entered the final week with ten points ahead of the seventh spot managed to not qualify for the LAN finals. They lost all four maps and dropped to the 7th rank.

The same happened to Cloud9. They only won two of their final six maps and dropped from fifth to ninth.

NRG and Misfits took advantage of their opposition’s poor performances as they squeezed into the playoff ranks, ahead of Luminosity even who occupy the final LAN spot.

Ghost Gaming will get demoted to MDL. Rogue and Immortals have to fight for survival in relegation. Especially the Brazilians weren’t expected so low in the rankings, but after they repeatedly got punched in the face by fate, this shouldn’t come as a big surprise. Not a single member from their major run remains in the team, as news of steel’s trade to Liquid have reached us. Hopefully they can rebuild a strong squad.

See below the final standings for ESL Pro League Season 6 North America:

Match Of The Week Recap – Cloud9 vs. Misfits

After losing two maps to OpTic, C9 was under zugzwang against the Mistfits. They needed both maps to proceed to the finals and failed to do so.

After tight game on Cache, all hope was gone for one of NA’s strongest teams and fan-favorites. They did win the second match on train, but it was a meaningless victory.

For a team of Cloud9’s calibre, this shouldn’t happen. They should be able to do what’s necessary in a long online season and pull through in the end.

But we should be happy for the Misfits. Lead by the always sympathetic and genius IGL-mind of seang@res, they have a talented and well versed squad that could do serious damage in Denmark. Definitely a team to look out for, as they have recently demonstrated they are a threat on LAN as well. Congrats to Sean and his boys.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK

It’s Finals time!

In less than a month’s time, the LAN Finals in Denmark kick off. Group stage play for the best twelve teams from NA and EU starts on December 5th. Teams then move on to the playoffs in Odense’s Sparekassen Fyn Arena to battle it out for the $750,000 prize pool.

If you don’t want to miss a single match, be sure to follow ESL’s CS:GO YouTube Channel.

Even better, secure your tickets here and watch Counter-Strike the way it’ supposed to be watched - live with thousands of fans!

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

Season 6 of the ESL Pro League is brought to you by Intel, the City of Odense, Nvidia GeForce GTX, Legion by Lenovo, Logitech, paysafecard, xfinity, MDL and YouTube.

Linkedin-in Facebook-f Youtube Instagram Twitch

© 2024 ESL Gaming GmbH

Login at ESL & Partner

Chose the Account you want to login to play your favorite game

FaceIT

ESL Play

CS:GO Hub

Newsletter

Stay up to date

* indicates required


By clicking the "Subscribe" button, I consent to the processing of my personal data and tracking of my activity for marketing purposes, and I agree to receive marketing communications, including newsletters, raffles and surveys from ESL Gaming GmbH, in joint controllership with Dreamhack AB and ESL Gaming Online Inc., all around their products/services. I have read ESL Privacy Notice and I understand I can withdraw my consent at any time.

I understand Braze, a marketing platform, is being used. By clicking to subscribe, I acknowledge that my personal data will be transferred to Braze for processing. Learn more about Braze's privacy practices here.