The other day saw the conclusion of Group A games at ESL Pro League Season 14. Today, the CS.MONEY Blog elaborates on what the expectations from each team were and whether the squads lived up to them.
Heroic’s rise amidst scandals around the team
Expectations: In recent months, the situation around Heroic has been tense. After winning the ESL Pro League Season 13, the team displayed a noticeable decline in performance. Placing 7–8th in Cologne wasn’t a result the team expected.
Some time later, one reason behind Heroic’s poor performance surfaced in the media. At the end of July, it turned out that the team’s coach Nicolai “HUNDEN” Petersen hadn’t attended the tournament in Cologne due to a “lack of trust.” Later, the organization decided to sue the now ex-coach for blocking the players’ access to a Google document with tactics and opening it to a third party — another team.
The departure of a very experienced coach rendered the expectations low. Before the tournament, the team was among those lineups which could only hope to progress out of the group stage. Yet reality far exceeded the expectations.
Reality: The team performed as if they hadn’t even noticed that HUNDEN was gone. The Danes annihilated their opponents and only lost 2 maps in their pretty strong group. Heroic made it to the playoffs without giving up a single game. Now, the team is one of the favorites in the tournament.
Stability displayed by Vitality & their leader ZywOo
Expectations: No scandal happened around the French in the off-season, and they didn’t make any reshuffles either. It was time for Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut to finally join the “Best CS:GO Player 2021” race, but the team didn’t provide any specific info on practicing or vacation dates. Analysts believed Vitality shouldn’t have any issues with advancing out of the group.
Reality: Vitality performed exactly as their fans and world experts had expected. The French only lost once — to the mighty Heroic — and progressed out of the group stage to continue their fight for the trophy.
Sensation caused by ENCE
Expectations: Before the tournament, the European team certainly wasn’t expected to reach the playoff battle. In May 2021, the team lost their AWPer and captain Aleksi “allu” Jalli, which didn’t work out too well initially. The team seemed to be no match for almost any team in Group A.
Reality: With only two defeats by Vitality and Heroic, ENCE showed remarkable teamplay. The squad’s rifler Snappi even played the best map of his career in the match versus Heroic. His rating on Mirage amounted to an astounding 2.44! Eventually, the guys managed to beat two well-known clubs, which we’ll discuss a little later.
Uncertainty surrounding Astralis
Expectations: The situation around the team has been uncertain all year. Only gla1ve and Bubzkji signed new contracts with the org. The rest of the team, including the coach, zonic, are still yet to sign theirs which will expire at the end of 2021. This fact didn’t prevent Astralis from moving forward. The team placed 3-4th on LAN in Cologne. Later, during the off-season, the Danes signed young AWPer Lucky. Bringing in new players to the roster is usually stressful for the teams, but Astralis still was expected to advance from the group. But this was never meant to happen.
Reality: Right before the event, Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth announced his intention to leave the team, indicating possible conflicts within the organization. So, one of the core players was benched. The roster turmoil resulted in a defeat by ENCE in the second match and in an underwhelming performance against Vitality and Heroic. Gla1ve&co made unnecessary errors and didn’t really play like the Astralis we know — which is explainable.
Nevertheless, the Danes’ early departure from the ESL Pro League gives them a chance to pull themselves together and resolve their disagreements before the next tournament, Blast Premier Fall Groups 2021.
Spirit’s failure & the reasons behind it
Expectations: Ukrainian analyst ceh9 predicted that all CIS teams participating in the tournament would advance to the playoffs. This belief was supported by many experts. Before the event, “Dragons” hired a new analyst. Also, they were the first to get out of their vacation. So, expecting them to place third at least was quite a safe bet.
Reality: Only one win out of five games was a truly disappointing result. The squad’s player Boris “magixx” Vorobiev attributed the failure to a huge number of teamplay mistakes in the matches. Also, AWPer Abdul “degster” Hasanov told in an interview about his illness that impacted his performance negatively. Team coach Nikolay “Certus” Poluyanov promised that Spirit would correct their mistakes and perform better at the RMR tournament.
Bad News Bears’ plight
Expectations: The team has been without an organization for more than half a year now. In North America, the guys dominate local tournaments that Liquid doesn’t participate in. Plus, the European organization GODSENT made a kind gesture by providing the Americans with a location to play at and set up a proper bootcamp. Nevertheless, there were hardly any expectations from BNB at the event.
Reality: No miracle happened. Bad News Bears became the second team in the history of the ESL Pro League after Team One to drop out of the tournament without winning one single map. The Bears are leaving Europe with disgrace — largely due to the decay of professional CS:GO in North America during the pandemic.
Do you want to know which teams will join Heroic, Team Vitality, and ENCE in the ESL Pro League Season 14 playoffs? Then stay tuned to CS.MONEY — let’s follow the event together!
Do you like getting CS:GO news in our vibe?
What are you waiting for? Hit subscribe!
