ESL Pro League playoffs round 1 highlights

发布时间：2025-04-20 09:47:41 来源：free cs cases 作者：skinhub

ESL Pro League is heading into the playoffs after four weeks of action. You can keep up with the highlights and lowlights here in our live post.

Round 1 of playoffs
— Shock: Astralis and Virtus.pro are out after losses to Eternal Fire and 9z
— Monte took out fnatic and MOUZ crushed FURIA in a landslide

Virtus.pro 14-16 9z

WOW! 9z just played their best half of the series, a powerful and brutish T side that was simply too much for Virtus.pro too handle.

Maximiliano "⁠max⁠" Gonzalez deserves credit for some immensely impactful frags, particularly early in the half, that set 9z on the path to victory.

What a fantastic result for the South American scene!

9z now progress to the second round of the playoffs, where they will take on Movistar Riders. Considering their form, the South Americans must feel they have a real chance to make the quarter-finals.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 18
27/09/2023	Movistar Riders15:30 9z	Match

Virtus.pro 8-7 9z

9z ran out to a 4-0 lead off the back of a CT pistol victory, but once guns came up, Virtus.pro began to turn the screw.

The Russian squad conditioned the B site early in the half, spending the majority of their rounds bunched around and then hitting that site, only to switch up the approach as the half wore on.

9z certainly struggled after taking their 4-0 lead, but they managed to muster a half-buy win to end the half only 7-8 down. Everything to play for in the final half of play.

Virtus.pro 16-10 9z

Virtus.pro managed to run a pistol victory on their CT side all the way to 13 rounds, which gave 9z too much of a mountain to climb.

The South Americans did manage to string some rounds together with a grouped-up, brute force attacking style, but Virtus.pro were ultimately comfortable in securing a 16-10 victory.

Overpass is the decider, a map that both teams are proficient on, but the stats do favour Virtus.pro.

Virtus.pro 9-6 9z

A reasonably dominant offensive half for Virtus.pro, but it could have been so different. 9z took a 2-0 lead off the back of the pistol round, and had plenty of advantageous situations throughout the half, but they were outplayed time and time again in mid-round scenarios.

Take nothing away from Virtus.pro, they were potent in their fragging and well-orchestrated in their mid-round maneuvers, but 9z should probably have grabbed another round or two at least.

MOUZ 16-4 FURIA

Well, that absoutely was embarrassing from FURIA.

The Brazilian team were not only outclassed on their own map pick, but couldn't hold a candle to MOUZ on Mirage either.

A masterclass T side allowed the European team to mount another 12-3 lead at the half, and again they wasted no time in closing things out following the side swap, giving up just one round before clinching victory.

Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek's men can walk away from the victory happy after looking comfortable for the entirety of the series, but don't have much time to relish the win: they have a game against FaZe to prepare for on Wednesday at 19:00 .

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 18
27/09/2023	FaZe19:00 MOUZ	Match

Virtus.pro 14-16 9z

It felt like a necessity, and 9z have done just enough to take their pick of Mirage and go 1-0 up in the series!

Virtus.pro were slow and ponderous at the start of their T side, an approach that garnered them absolutely nothing. A timeout heralded a switch to a more aggressive, execute-heavy style, and this earned results, but it was too late to rescue the map.

Inferno is up next, the map choice of Virtus.pro. No room for error now for the Russian squad.

Virtus.pro 9-6 9z

The South American side started well, forcing successfully after losing the T pistol to take a solid 5-1 lead.

Petr "⁠fame⁠" Bolyshev and Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali awoke, however, racking up repeated multi-kills to haul their team back into the driver's seat by halftime.

This is 9z's pick, they need to take this map if they are to have a serious chance of contesting the series.

MOUZ 16-5 FURIA

FURIA's pick of Nuke backfired in spectacular fashion as they mustered just five rounds to kick off the series, with MOUZ completely running away with things thanks to a stalwart defense on the CT side.

The European combine had all four of their riflers firing on all cylinders in the first half as they cruised to a 12-3 lead at the break, and quickly moved up to match point after the side swap before closing things out with a half-buy victory to add insult to injury.

We're headed to MOUZ's pick of Mirage next, and with that kind of showing from FURIA, it looks like we're in for a quick end to the series.

Just like that, Monte are through to the next round in Malta. From down 0-3 on Vertigo the team dominated the CT side half 11-4 off of their early-round success, and similarly on the other side just lost the first two rounds including the pistol before they got back to winning ways.

A superb team performance — Monte's players finish within seven kills from one another across the whole series:

Monte	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Viktor 'sdy' Orudzhevsdy	51 - 43	+8	77.8	1.13
Sergiy 'DemQQ' DemchenkoDemQQ	54 - 47	+7	71.6	1.09
Volodymyr 'Woro2k' VeletniukWoro2k	51 - 49	+2	74.9	1.06
Alexander 'br0' Brobr0	47 - 44	+3	75.6	1.05
Szymon 'kRaSnaL' MrozekkRaSnaL	51 - 51	0	68.6	1.03

Monte 8-4 fnatic

The scoreline might not make it look so one-sided, but keep in mind fnatic started out 3-0 off the back of their pistol round win. Apart from a 2v5 fumble in round eight, all the gunrounds have gone the way of Monte thanks to early fights going their way — they are currently up 10-2 in opening duels.

Astralis 7-16 Eternal Fire

What an absolute bloodbath — Astralis stood no chance on their map pick and were made to look like fools for much of it, but no more than in the second half.

The Danes won the pistol round after the side swap but couldn't add a single round from that point onward as Eternal Fire ran away with the victory, their players firing on all cylinders while Astralis' individuals simply couldn't get anything going.

That was illustrated even in the last round, where Astralis looked like they might prevent an early victory with Christian "⁠Buzz⁠" Andersen positioned on Coldzera box on site, but a jumping kill from Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker put an end to those hopes to net the Turkish team victory.

Eternal Fire will take on BIG in the next round of the playoffs on Wednesday.

fnatic 16-12 Monte

A 12-3 offensive half, which at times looked a bit like a B bombsite simulator, powers fnatic to an equalizer on Overpass. It was a strong team performance from the black-and-orange team, who had everyone pitch in with some key moments.

From down 6-14 Monte dug their heels off the back of an Viktor "⁠sdy⁠" Orudzhev quad-kill with a Tec-9, but ultimately didn't give themselves enough space with a woeful defense.

Astralis 6-9 Eternal Fire

Astralis early lead crumbled quite quickly on the first half of Inferno, with Eternal Fire pulling ahead by three rounds by the break.

The Turkish team shut down Victor "⁠Staehr⁠" Staehr in banana repeatedly and have Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker and Ismailcan "⁠XANTARES⁠" Dörtkardeş to thank for their lead, the former finding form in the early stages of the half while the latter net himself a handful of multi-kills in defense of B to close things out.

Can Eternal Fire close out the series on the T side, or can Astralis push up to an Overpass decider?

Astralis 3-2 Eternal Fire

In classic Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer fashion, he ended up behind some Eternal Fire members to kick off Inferno, but fumbled an easy opportunity to grab a kill. Astralis lost the round, but recovered with a force-buy in the next before blameF redeemed himself with a snappy triple kill to put his team in the lead.

Astralis 14 - 16 Eternal Fire

Eternal Fire secured their Vertigo pick by the skin of their teeth, 16-14, off the back of an incredible ace by Buğra "⁠Calyx⁠" Arkın.

The 25-year-old played a flank perfectly to get his team on match point, which was converted the following round to crystalize a six-round comeback in the dying embers of the map.

Monte 16-9 fnatic

The ending of Sergiy "⁠DemQQ⁠" Demchenko's map-winning clutch didn't quite go according to plan, but what does it matter, right? His perfectly timed move did the job.

fnatic had a brief resurgence late into the first half, but otherwise got outclassed on the opener. Overpass, their pick, is next.

Astralis 8 - 7 Eternal Fire

Eternal Fire's youngster, Ali "⁠Wicadia⁠" Haydar Yalçın, who was praised by Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker ahead of the ESL Pro League playoffs, led the charge for his team on the attacking side of Vertigo with 14 frags. In the end, however, it wasn't enough to keep EF in the lead.

Astralis brought their 0-5 deficit back with an incredibly important 2vs5 in the 13th round. Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer and Johannes "⁠b0RUP⁠" Borup got a full house which swung momentum and ultimately allowed their side to grab the slight lead at the switch.

Monte 7-2 fnatic

Szymon "⁠kRaSnaL⁠" Mrozek has been crucial to Monte's success early on their pick with six multikills in the seven round wins the team has picked up so far. The Ukrainian-majority squad are going for aggressive plays all over the map and the Pole's leading the way with great anchoring work.

The first map in the Astralis vs. Eternal Fire first-round series, Vertigo, is underway. The two teams traveled to the skyscraper at the Turkish team's behest, while the Danes chose Inferno as their hope map. Overpass will be the third in the series, if needed.

1. Eternal Fire removed Ancient
2. Astralis removed Mirage
3. Eternal Fire picked Vertigo
4. Astralis picked Inferno
5. Eternal Fire removed Nuke
6. Astralis removed Anubis
7. Overpass was left over

So far, Eternal Fire are off to a great 3-0 start on the attack. Astralis will now get a chance to inject themselves into the map in the first buy round.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 18
26/09/2023	Astralis15:30 Eternal Fire	Match

Quite the contrast between the two teams. Monte have played 13 official maps in three different events since they advanced from Group B 16 days ago, while fnatic return from Group C after 10 days with just some unofficial practice behind them.

Viktor "⁠sdy⁠" Orudzhev: "There's always a risk of exhaustion. There's no perfect way to find good practice, so we decided that's the way we need to do to feel each other and to synchronize better."

William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman: "It feels good to be back pretty quickly, not have too much of a break and still try to ride the momentum we had from the group stage."

Ahead of Astralis' clash against Eternal Fire in the first round, Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer spoke to HLTV about his individual performance as the second-highest-rated player of the tournament so far (1.46).

"We didn’t play the best opponents yet, so that’s why the stats are higher right now," he said. The recently-minted in-game leader stressed he does feel like his individual level has decreased as a result of his new responsibilities, even if not much. "I’m not surprised that I haven’t taken a big hit, but I think I have taken a hit individually."

Four weeks have come and gone and it's time for ESL Pro League to head into the final week: the playoffs.

The top four from each group are layered through the single elimination bracket, beginning with the third-fourth-placed teams facing off in the first round today.

Round 1 matches

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 18
26/09/2023	fnatic15:30 Monte	Match
26/09/2023	Astralis15:30 Eternal Fire	Match
26/09/2023	MOUZ19:00 FURIA	Match
26/09/2023	Virtus.pro19:30 9z	Match

The bracket

Eight more teams await further in the bracket: Complexity, BIG, Movistar Riders, and FaZe earned a bye to the second round after placing second in their respective groups, and Vitality, Natus Vincere, ENCE, and G2 are already in the quarter-finals as the winning teams.

Pick'Ems remain open for another hour and a half or so before the matches start. Let us know your predictions!

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