Mousesports finished the regular season of Europe’s ESL Pro League Season 7 in first place thanks in large part to a 4-0 final week. This wasn’t surprising as mousesports have been a top team all year long, with a star-studded line-up complimented by a solid supporting cast that delivers consistency.
Mousesports bounce back well
Considered the best team in the world before being dethroned by Astralis at DreamHack Marseille this past weekend, mousesports recovered nicely against both Space Soldiers, who had been top of the league for most of the season, and EnVyUs.
Mousesports are a straightforward outfit who routinely have success through their chemistry and team cohesion, more so than flashy plays by any one individual.
As a whole moving forward, mousesports are one of the top dogs in any tournament they enter, with hopes of redeeming themselves here after a disappointing time in Marseille.
Astralis stumble
The most perplexing week belonged to the aforementioned Astralis, who finished with a 1-3 record.
Astralis have been gathering steam ever since the addition of Magisk in place of Kjaerbye, with the consistency of Magisk doing wonders to the overall structure of the team. Winners of DreamHack Marseille and a fixture at the top of the online league, this week was a huge letdown for the Danes. First splitting 1-1 with one of the worst teams in the league in EnVyUs, then falling 0-2 to Ninjas in Pyjamas, is quite the turnaround from their brilliant weekend.
Even still, Astralis are considered the best team in the world currently, with their deep map pool only being complimented by the recent removal of Cobblestone and addition of Dust 2. Astralis appear to be able to play all seven maps now, with the ability to mold their pick and ban strategy to target the weaknesses of their opponents. Astralis are still riding high, with hopes of a deep playoff run in any event they attend.
Space Soldiers stunned
Space Soldiers had a massive wake-up call this week, with a brutal 0-4 effort. Front-running for most of the season, they slipped to fifth place, limping into the Finals as a result. While the two match-ups Space Soldiers had were against two top teams in mousesports and FaZe Clan, each of those sides were coming off incredibly disappointing weekends with questions in particular about FaZe’s outlook moving forward. FaZe completely overwhelmed Space Soldiers though, with the Turkish side only gathering a total of 13 rounds over the two maps. Combined with their noted struggles in offline events, Space Soldiers will need to prove themselves moving into the Finals.
Heroic fall short
The surprise of the week was Heroic who, after replacing the two players who were their star AWPer (sniper) and in-game leader, completed a 4-0 week to narrowly miss out on the Finals. The obvious caveat here was the easy schedule of having EnVyUs and AGO, but even so, with two stand-ins this was an incredible performance made even more surprising given EnVy’s upset win over Astralis in the same week.
Heroic have long been towards the bottom of the standings, appearing outmatched in both tactics and star power for most of the year. With two players heading to OpTic to form an all Danish line-up, they appeared to play with nothing to lose and nothing but pride on the line in the final week. To make matters even more complex for Heroic, they actually had the old line-up playing together for the last time against EnVy, before the stand-ins came in to take care of AGO with a day at most to practice. While Finals were unfortunately just out of reach, Heroic at least put on a stunning show to close out the season on a high.
Conclusion
Mousesports, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Natus Vincere, FaZe Clan, Space Soldiers, Astralis and HellRaisers now join the six teams from North America, two from the Asia-Pacific region and one from South America as they focus on the Verizon Theatre in Dallas for the Finals in mid-May. It will be interesting to see how the European sides compete there.
