Week 2 of the ESL Pro League in Europe has a number of interesting match-ups, with teams looking to forge an early path towards the top of the standings, particularly as the current top three will all be taking breaks.
North and mousesports clash
The opening clash between mousesports and North should be a more hotly contested series than initially anticipated, with each team looking better than originally predicted.
Mousesports are coming off a win at StarLadder after defeating Na’Vi in the Finals, while North had a decent showing at IEM Katowice, eventually falling to NiP 1-2. Despite this, Mousesports are still the favourites by a decent margin given the overall wealth of talent and solid map pool they have continued to develop over recent months.
Soldiers could struggle
Space Soldiers could be in for a rough week, with Na’Vi and G2 Esports on the schedule. Currently with a 3-3 record, Space Soldiers have had a disappointing start, with a 1-1 split against LDLC, the latter’s only win in six maps, highlighting their up and down play. Space Soldiers’ only 2-0 sweep came against Heroic, another team struggling to find success early on in Pro League.
Fortunately for Space Soldiers, Na’Vi and G2 Esports are both teams that tend to struggle in online environments, with Na’Vi’s 1-1 splits versus HellRaisers and North showcasing that. Given the inability of each team to find continued success online, all of Space Soldiers’ match-ups this week should be incredibly close.
Team EnVyUs debut
Team EnVyUs are likely to have a solid week, with both LDLC and North due up. This will be the first showing for EnVyUs since their roster changes, with kioShiMa and hAdji replacing xms and SIXER. EnVyUs made two quality changes in areas of need during the offseason. The removal of SIXER, who had some of the weakest statistics over a number of events, was particularly important.
Even though they struggled throughout much of last year, EnVyUs continued to have solid results online, regularly upsetting top teams. The combination of their loose style and odd map pool – a pool which specifically included Nuke, a map few teams are willing to play – lead to more victories in an open online environment, more so than LAN at least.
This week is the perfect opening for EnVyUs given the struggles of LDLC and the mediocrity of North. The key for EnVyUs will be the health of RpK, who returns from a long medical issue that forced him to withdraw from the ELEAGUE Major. Should RpK be at full strength, EnVyUs should be in for a good week.
HellRaisers hope to build on Week 1
HellRaisers should be able to build on their solid 3-1 start to the season, with Heroic on the slate in Week 2. They had a better than anticipated opening to the campaign with their 2-0 success over a Fnatic side who are well-known for their quality play online. This followed on from a split against an in-form Na’Vi team.
In Heroic, HellRaisers face an inconsistent outfit who were crushed by Space Soldiers before securing an absurd 2-0 win over Astralis.
HellRaisers have continued to improve since the re-addition of bondik to the line-up after his time with TyLoo. Should HellRaisers produce a 2-0 week, they will be in prime position moving forward into the more difficult part of their schedule.
No go for AGO?
Arguably the most unfortunate set of fixtures this week belongs to AGO Gaming, with Na’Vi and Ninjas in Pyjamas on tap for the Polish side. AGO were expected to struggle throughout Pro League and their 2-4 record is perhaps a bit misleading given that their two wins came over bottom of the table LDLC. While Na’Vi do at times struggle to find consistency online, this is the type of match-up that players such as s1mple should easily dominate.
Conclusion
It’s been a good start for top three sides Astralis, FaZe Clan and Fnatic, but it’s way too early in the season to come to any conclusions. With all of these teams sitting out Week 2, the focus will instead turn to fourth-placed Na’Vi and whether they can build on their useful Week 1.
