ESL Pro League Season 14 Group D Results

Group D of ESL Pro League Season 14 is finally over and the qualified teams are exactly the ones you’d expect: Gambit, Liquid, and NiP. However, the battles were not easy to win and there were several upsets along the way.

Lessons From Group D of ESL Pro League Season 14

Ahead of the race, which took place between September 1^st – 5^th, Gambit looked very strong, Liquid looked decent, and NiP was a bit of a question mark. All 3 teams were expected to qualify, but it wasn’t entirely clear how some of them would pull it off. In the end, Liquid beat everyone except Gambit, and Gambit beat everyone except NiP.

This defeat suffered by the CIS team in its last match of the tournament caused quite a stir. Without winning this match, the Swedish team would have been eliminated. But luckily for them, REZ, hampus, and Plopski were in great shape and Liquid defeated FURIA in a 3-map thriller. This helped NiP secure the 3^rd spot and a ticket to the Round of 12, where it will face mousesports.

Despite this great victory against Gambit, which many regard as a fluke, NiP does not look good at all ahead of the Playoffs. Its opponents will be tough teams with impressive results and there’s a high chance that dev1ce and his crew will get eliminated in the first match.

Gambit Is Still A World-Class Competitor

The team that played the best Counter-Strike in Group D of ESL Pro League Season 14 was Gambit. Hobbit and his teammates messed up in that last match against NiP, but other than that they were great. In particular, the match against Liquid was extremely difficult and tested not just their morale, but their tactical toolbox as well. The battle began with a victory for the NA team on Inferno, a map on which Gambit only has a 50% win rate (7 W – 7 L). But the next two maps, Vertigo and Mirage, clearly favored the CIS competitor.

Gambit’s performance on these two maps is incredible: 100% success rate on the first (9 W – 0 L) and 75% win rate on the second (9 W – 3 L). Liquid played really well on both maps but was ultimately defeated by their opponent, whose roster shined right when it mattered most.

Given Gambit’s performance in the Group Stage and their next opponents in the Playoffs of ESL Pro League Season 14, it will be very hard for the CIS team to miss the Grand Final.

 

Photo credit: IEM|Bart-Oerbekke