After some unexpected results in week seven of the ESL Pro League, the European teams took a break from online play to compete at DreamHack Masters Malmӧ, where Ninjas in Pyjamas took the US$100,000 first place prize. In last week’s roundup, we recommended that you specifically looked out for one series in particular: Natus Vincere versus Fnatic. Both maps of the series were very close as in one of the final weeks of matches, these two teams looked to guarantee a spot at the offline finals in London, England. The first map, de_overpass, finished 16-11 in favour of Fnatic, but the second, de_cobble, concluded 16-13 in favour of CIS side Natus Vincere. With only one week remaining, it will be interesting to see which lineups will establish the four teams to play in the ESL Pro League Season 3 LAN finals.
It’s now time to look at the current season standings as well as highlights from across the three days of action - let’s get started!
Standings
At the end of week seven, there were, again, limited changes to the top of the leaderboard with Swedish lineup Ninjas in Pyjamas retaining their first place spot over Fnatic, Astralis, G2 Esports and Natus Vincere. As it stands, with only one week remaining Ninjas in Pyjamas, Astralis, Fnatic and G2 Esports are all set to receive their invite to the offline finals in May with all teams having now played 20 of their 22 matches. However, going into the final day of action it is up in the air as to which team will receive the fourth invite to the offline finals, with Natus Vincere sitting at fifth place with equal points to G2 Esports.
With only one day of complete action remaining, there are a number of teams who no longer have the ability to qualify for the ESL Pro League Season 3 LAN finals, including;
- Virtus.pro
- mousesports
- SK Gaming
- FlipSid3 Tactics
- Team Dignitas
- FaZe
- Team EnVyUs
Below you can find the complete European ESL Pro League Season 3 standings at the end of week eight.
Click to enlarge
Highlights of the week
A consolation prize for mousesports
In their first match against Team EnVyUs, mousesports player Nikola “NiKo” Kovač pulls off an impressive ace to further push his team to a match win as the two sides went into overtime on Inferno.
.@mouzNiko mops up NV on his own! ACE! #CSGO #ESLProLeague @mousesports https://t.co/J1uicM2Jgzhttps://t.co/AJF9OzVQmL
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) April 19, 2016
Hit them with the flank
Headshot machine Adil “ScreaM” Benriltrom flanks the Natus Vincere side and helps his team secure their fifth round in a row on Overpass. This match could prove vital in the qualification process for the offline finals as G2 Esports managed to take the map in an impressive manner.
.@G2ScreaM flanks around and shuts down @natusvincere! @G2Esports #CSGO #ESLProLeague https://t.co/J1uicM2Jgz https://t.co/FuZZJZ7b5r
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) April 20, 2016
Team of the week
It was difficult to choose which team deserves to be named team of the week with all of them giving it their all to solidify their invite to the LAN finals later next month. With that said, we have again chosen Ninjas in Pyjamas to be our team of the week as they were the team that secured the number one seed within the European division.
From the beginning of the 2016 season, the Swedish side have struggled to perform at their usual level in an offline format, but it has been a completely different story during online play over the past couple of weeks. This week, Ninjas in Pyjamas played their two matches against French side Team EnVyUs and came out victorious in both of them. In the first map of the series the teams were battling it out well, but NiP pulled away to take de_cache 16-10. de_train, however, proved the complete opposite, with the Swedes closing out the map 16-3.
Tune in to the final day of action for the European teams!
With only one day of action remaining, it will be interesting to see which of the other teams will be joining Ninjas in Pyjamas at the ESL Pro League Season 3 offline finals.Throughout the day of edge-of-your-seat action at the top of the leaderboard, there will be a number of matches to look out for, especially Astralis versus Fnatic, Natus Vincere versus mousesports and G2 Esports versus Ninjas in Pyjamas.
It has been announced that the ESL Pro League Season 3 finals will be played in Leicester and London, with the teams to compete for a share of the US$750,000 prize pool. Tickets are now available, so don’t forget to get yours here!
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