Starting very soon is ESL Pro League S15, which is a really big event. Today, the CS.MONEY Blog will provide you with a prediction concerning the fifteenth season of the Pro League.
A couple of words about the tournament
ESL Pro League is one of the oldest CS:GO tournaments, with at least two seasons held annually. Lately, these events boast an especially high prize pool. For instance, the upcoming event will witness 24 teams from different parts of the world compete for $823,000. The final stage will take place in Germany, the city yet to be determined.
The group stage starts on March 9 and consists of four groups of six teams each. The team to rank first advances to the second round of the playoffs, with the 1st and 2nd place teams going to the first round.
Group A
Group A has a certain favorite: G2, finalists of the recent IEM Katowice 2022. There’s also an outsider: the Australia-based Looking For Org. The other clubs seem to have an equal chance of making the playoffs.
Among the equals, it’s fnatic that has the least chance of making it out of the group. The other day saw Owen “smooya” Butterfiel’s departure from the roster, with academy player Iulian “regali” Harjău taking his place. The new fnatic lineup failed to qualify for the RMR, losing to AVE in the decider. The team’s performance at the qualifier left much to be desired, and there’s no guarantee their situation has improved.
MOUZ, Entropiq, and NIP look like equal teams, but the latter had more time to prepare as they didn’t attend the final stage of IEM Katowice. It’s hard to pick 2 squads out of 3, but one way or another, someone will drop out of the playoffs.
Group B
Group B includes two teams which haven’t been very impressive of late: Sprout and ENCE. The latter dropped out of IEM Katowice ranking 13–16th, while the Greens didn’t even win a single game in the Play-In Stage. Both clubs are in the process of making their new lineups play like a unified front, so their playoff appearance alone would be a bombshell.
FURIA is one of the strongest America-based teams at the moment, but neither the players nor the fans were particularly delighted with their 9–12th place at IEM Katowice. Besides, young Rafael “saffee” Costa and André “drop” Abreu don’t have a high rating yet (only around 1.0).
Vitality and Virtus.pro have established themselves as strong players in recent tournaments. The Europeans’ roster includes Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, whereas the Bears traditionally carry the day thanks to their chemistry and excellent tactical preparation. These teams will probably share 2nd–3rd place and compete with FaZe for first place.
FaZe are enjoying their halcyon days right now. They won IEM Katowice despite the fact they played with a stand-in. The superb level of shooting and the immaculate calls of the experienced Finn “karrigan” Andersen make this squad the biggest favorite in the group surely able to qualify for the second round of the playoffs.
Group C
In Group C, we don’t expect much from Movistar Riders, who didn’t advance out of the group even in the small-scale ESL Challenger February event. Party Astronauts aren’t a favorite either: while the US-based squad is a strong player at the American level, practice shows that such squads don’t stand a chance on the European stage. We’ll also go out on a limb and say BIG are another outsider. Their play in recent months was the definition of underwhelming. Due to their drop-out of the group at the BLAST Premier Spring Groups and subsequent defeats, the team decided to attend the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 qualifier with Karim “Krimbo” Moussa, who replaced the capable clutch master Nils “k1to” Gruhne. We can safely assume that the team is suffering from a lack of coordination and the atmosphere is tense, which will probably affect the result.
GODSENT and Liquid, two teams from America, are likely to share 2nd–3rd places. Liquid has experience on their side, but the Brazilians have already demonstrated at the IEM Winter that they’re ready to challenge even the major European teams on equal terms. All the same, it’s very likely that Liquid will be victorious in this battle.
Group D
In the BLAST Group Stage, the North Americans Evil Geniuses and Complexity proved to be straightforward and poorly prepared teams. Will anything change at the upcoming ESL Pro League S15? Not likely. Since the start of the pandemic, many North Americans have been stagnant. AGO has little chance of making it through either. They don’t have a clear leader, they’re lacking a top-level shooter, whose role was previously occupied by Miłosz “mhL” Knasiak, and they’re the worst team in the Pro League according to the HLTV rankings.
Astralis should make the playoffs despite some stagnation in previous contests by taking advantage of the not-very-strong group. They’ve already taken a bronze medal at IEM Katowice. Heroic will probably rank second and Astralis third.
NAVI is the undisputed favorite in the group — the world’s best team should rank first. The unstable situation in the CIS region may interfere with their performance, but not so much as to make the team lose the tournament. With decent preparation, NAVI may well advance to the playoffs with a first place in th group.
Who take top-4?
The top 4 teams in the world will probably include Virtus.pro who are showing high morale and emotional stability. A squad like that will definitely find a way out of even the most difficult situations.
FaZe, who are currently tearing everyone and everything apart, will keep them company in the fight for the trophy. It’s pretty clear by now that they can win big matches even with a stand-in player.
G2 are in good shape and play better with each subsequent tournament. Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov integrated in the squad incredibly well and has already started to show great AWP play.
NAVI. They are candidates for the top 4 list as well. No one can say for sure just how much the well-known events will impact the team’s performance, but if we see the best of NAVI, they will doubtlessly be among the top 4 clubs.
So these were ESL Pro League S15 predictions from the CS.MONEY Blog. If you liked the post, check out our story about the 3 players who ruined their careers and our exclusive interview with n0rb3r7. Stay tuned: there’s plenty more for you to see.
