ESL Pro League Season 15 kicked off in Dusseldorf, Germany last week with Group A matches taking place first. The group consisted of heavyweights such as G2 and NiP and it was expected that they would make it through to the playoffs with ease, considering the other teams in the group were Entropiq, MOUZ, fnatic with 3 stand-ins and Australian team LFO.
Disaster struck for G2 as In game leader Aleksib tested positive for COVID-19 and had to sit out the first 3 games. But a team like G2 was expected to beat fnatic who were without Brollan and KRIMZ and also MOUZ who were making their full debut at EPL.
G2 could only beat LFO and lost to fnatic and MOUZ in the following games. Aleksib returned but he was still recovering and couldn’t power G2 to a win vs Entropiq and G2 were unable to make the playoffs.
They did win their final game but it didn’t mean anything in the Grand Scheme of things.
NiP on the other hand, still playing with phzy instead of dev1ce looked convincing as ever and beat everyone they faced, losing just 2 maps, one to LFO and one to MOUZ as they topped the group.
Entropiq, who had an underwhelming IEM Katowice 2022 came back with all guns blazing, losing only to NiP as they finished second behind them in the group with a 4-1 score.
Fnatic surprised everyone coming into the group on the back of the benching of smooya, followed by rumours of Brollan being acquired by NiP.
KRIMZ too caught the coronavirus and had to sit out from the Group stage as fnatic played with Banjo, Pepper and poizon as stand-ins.
They handed G2 an upset and beat MOUZ too, after beating LFO and came in third behind Entropiq to make it to the playoffs.
MOUZ, G2 and LookingForOrg are the teams that will be eliminated from ESL Pro League Season 15 as Group A concludes.
NiP topped the group and will make it to the quarter finals straight, while fnatic and Entropiq will qualify for the round of 16.
Group B of ESL Pro League S15 will start on Wednesday. The matches will continue till Sunday 20th March when the final Bo3s will be played. ESL Pro League S15 Group B consists of-
- Team Vitality
- FaZe Clan
- Sprout
- ENCE
- FURIA
- Outsiders (Virtus.pro)
Virtus.pro will be playing under the name outsiders as previously reported, following ESL’s announcement that Russian orgs with ties to the Russian Government will not be allowed to sport their sponsors and name at ESL events for the time being.
