ESL Pro League Group A: BIG Miss Playoffs Chance

The German team started their EPL journey off with a surprise loss and never recovered. Instead, Heroic, Complexity Gaming, and FunPlus Phoenix have made up the Top 3 and thus have qualified for the ESL Pro League Season 13 playoffs.

On the first day, BIG lost a closely contested Best-of-Three to OG. Later, they lost another 1-2 match to Heroic, but finally delivered a solid 2-0 victory over Complexity. However, this still meant that they were far down the standings going into the fourth match day. They absolutely had to win both of their remaining matches if they wanted to still qualify for playoffs. They failed in doing so, and despite the heroics of Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz, they conceded a 14-16 against FunPlus Phoenix on the third map. At this point, their playoffs dreams had already turned to dust. This made the German players lose their last bit of confidence. On the fifth match day, they lost to Renegades and dropped down to the very last place in Group A.

HEROIC ANNOUNCE THEMSELVES TO THE BIG STAGE WITH NEW DUO

Nobody expected Ismail “refrezh” Ali and Rasmus “sjuush” Beck to shine in their first tournament while playing for Heroic. However, both recorded positive ratings for the event and on a few select maps, they delivered real star performances. This is a great sign for the future of the Danish team. The players can now really get to work and improve on their already great display.

A clean 5-0 in EPL Group A has now helped the team to a first-place finish, which sends them to the Play-Ins. There, they will be matched up with the winners of Group B. Whoever reigns victorious in this Best-of-Three will go straight to the Semi Finals, whereas the Losers will only advance to the Quarter Finals. In any case, Heroic have already made Top 6 of ESL Pro League Season 13.

ARE COMPLEXITY BACK AGAIN?

Benjamin “blameF” Bremer and his boys have had a few rough months as of late. Last year, Valentin “poizon” Vasilev had to go on sick leave. His absence spanned over several tournaments, but even after his return, things didn’t exactly go to plan for Complexity. However, this seems to finally have changed.

With a second-place finish in EPL Group A, they have shown to be capable of playing high-level CS again. It wasn’t enough for the top of the standings, even though they brought Heroic to the brink of defeat on a 14-16 scoreline on the last map. But only a comparison with the teams from the other groups will really show how much damage they can do.

FPX SURPRISE WITH SOLID PLACEMENT

When FunPlus Phoenix announced Miikka “suNny” Kemppi as a temporary fifth, the team didn’t inspire a lot of confidence. After all, FPX really hadn’t shown a lot with Chris “ChrisJ” de Jong on board. On top of that, sunny only got a few days to prepare with the team and implement his strategies.

In the end, none of that actually mattered. After victories over Renegades, BIG, and OG, they achieved their 3-2 finish for third place. Securing a 16-14 win over OG, they narrowly slid into playoffs territory.

WHAT ARE THE TEAMS’ CHANCES?

The playoffs will offer an entirely different caliber of teams. The other groups feature the likes of Vitality, FaZe, Gambit, Natus Vincere, and Astralis. While Heroic seem to be doing alright with their two newcomers, this feeling can betray them. After all, the other teams of Group A really haven’t shown their best selves at the event. Had BIG actually played to the level they held at the IEM Global Challenge or in their BLAST Group, the Danes might have had a considerably harder time.

Complexity and FunPlus Phoenix suffer from the same issues. If squads like FaZe, Vitality, or Astralis had been a part of the bracket, they might not have qualified for playoffs in the first place. The playoffs will go to show how well they can actually perform and how much of their success has been down to a weaker playing field in their group.