ESL Pro League: Group A Standings After Day 3

After three match days, the leaderboard of Group A really doesn’t look like anything we had anticipated. With three overall victories, Heroic are right at the top, whereas BIG are in danger of dropping out in the Group Stage already.

The Danes managed to put up a great show with Ismail “refrezh” Ali and Rasmus “sjuush” Beck on board. While they did have to enter overtime on the first map versus Renegades, they soon dispatched them with a 16-5 victory on Train. The two newcomers held their own in the following matches as well.

A hard-fought Best-of-Three victory over BIG granted them a second EPL win. This meant that they had already beaten the most prolific opponent of the their group. FPX failed to counter them and soon, Heroic held a 3-0 record right at the top of the standings.

Complexity have tried their very best to keep up with them. After victories over FPX and OG, they were set up pretty well, but they failed to pull through in their fight against BIG. They’re now on equal wins and losses with OG, who have recorded a surprise victory over BIG.

So far, Renegades haven’t won any of their encounters. While they did get close to a map victory against Heroic, this obviously isn’t enough and won’t push them over the finish line. For the Australians, this tournament will be a valuable learning experience, as they can otherwise only battle domestic opponents back at home.

WHAT IS HAPPENING TO BIG?

The German teams really wants to make it a close one. With some luck, they might still make the Top 3, but the other squads really have to mess up for that to happen. Complexity still have their match versus Renegades lined up, which they will probably win with ease. Since Heroic are going to battle OG and Complexity in the coming days, at least some of these teams will get another win on the board. So if BIG lose against Renegades or FPX, they are out of playoffs contention.

THE STRONGEST PLAYERS (UNTIL NOW)

The leaderboard of ESL Pro League Season 13 is currently being dominated by Danes. With the exception of sjuush, the entire Heroic roster is seated well within the Top 10, and Benjamin “blameF” Bremer and Valdemar “valde” Vangså are featured as well. But Mateusz “mantuu” Wilczewski is still a cut above the rest on a 1.21 rating. He has had a real resurgence at EPL so far. In his most recent tournaments, he and his team have struggled to put up a great display, which has obviously changed now. Complexity’s Valentin “poizon” Vasilev has delivered a stellar performance on a 1.19 rating. His return to form is one of the reasons for Complexity showing up this strong in EPL Group A.

Florian “syrsoN” Rische is playing an uncharacteristically weak tournament. With the exception of İsmail Can “XANTARES” Dörtkardeş and Nils “k1to” Gruhne, the BIG players are skewing towards the bottom of the scoreboard. They have to get rid of this slump if they really want to make playoffs of EPL still.

Soon, OG will face Heroic and mantuu has to show up in order to comfortably keep his team within the Top 3. Since Nikolaj “niko” Kristensen is still technically on the Heroic bench, OG have to bring Nathan “NBK-” Schmitt back to the active lineup. BIG are going up against FunPlus Phoenix, an opponent they definitely have to beat. The same holds true for Complexity, who will challenge Renegades and try to hand them their fourth straight match loss in ESL Pro League.