This article is part of our CS:GO Recap series.
With five days of competition in the books, Cloud9 stands victorious in the ESL Pro League. It didn't come easy, though. There were plenty of great matches and surprises to be had throughout the week.
The (Almost) Resurgence of SK Gaming
SK Gaming stumbled coming out of the gate with a 16-10 loss to Ninjas in Pyjamas in its first game of Group B, but it would recover from that point on with wins over FaZe Clan, Cloud9, Team Dignitas and NRG eSports. With the 4-1 record in the group stages, SK automatically earned a spot in the semifinals. It took on Ninjas in Pyjamas and were immediately put to the test. Despite having a 7-0 lead early on in the matchup, SK Gaming still managed to lose the opening game. But Fernando "fer" Alvarenga and his 47/30 KD allowed the Brazilian juggernauts to come back with two straight victories to advance to the grand finals.
Cloud9 had a bit of a tougher road into the grand finals. It enjoyed wins over FaZe Clan, NRG, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Team Dignitas, but lost its one game against SK in the group stages. That meant that Cloud9 would only advance through Group B as a second seed, forcing the American team to square off against OpTic Gaming in the Round of 6. Cloud9 picked OpTic apart in a 2-0 series, with Timothy "autimatic" Ta leading the way with a stellar 46/22 KD and 101.9 ADR. It then also dismantled mousesports in the semifinals with another quick 2-0 series. This set up an epic clash between the two juggernauts of the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive world.
Game 1 of the grand finals started out with the underdogs in Cloud9 taking a 13-2 lead into the half on Overpass. SK would not go quietly, however, as it would storm all the way back to force, and win, an overtime round. Marcelo "coldzera" David came up big in the game with an impressive 101.8 ADR. Game 2 on Mirage was a much more subdued and lopsided affair. The first half was fairly close as Cloud9 had a 9-6 lead, but the second half was nowhere near close, with Cloud9 winning seven straight to take the map 16-9.
It all game down to a final, decisive Game 3. It couldn't have ended with a bigger whimper. Cloud9 once again took a 13-2 lead into the half, but this time there was no second half magic from the hometown squad. SK did pick up three rounds in the half, but Cloud9 secured the final three it needed to lock up the ESL Pro League Season IV Championship. The win marked the first win at a LAN event for a North American team since compLexity Gaming won WSVG ISC in the Summer of 2006. The win might mark a changing of the guard in the CS:GO landscape.
The Best of the Rest
Ninjas in Pyjamas have continued its run of disappointing performances with a loss in the semifinals against SK. While it did finally break its four-month string of not making it past the quarterfinals, it just couldn't top the hometown favorites. It narrowly made it out of the group stages with a 16-7 win over FaZe Clan before going up against Team EnVyUs in the Round of 6. It took down the Boys in Blue behind a huge performance from Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund, who put up a 57/41 KD and a 96.8 ADR in the series. The pajama-clad ninjas then were forced to take on SK and actually got off to a good start with a win in Game 1 on Nuke. It then fell apart the next two games to get bounced from the semifinals of the ESL Pro League Finals for the second straight season.
Team EnVyUs got off to a nice start with a 3-1, second-place finish in Group A. Kenny "kennyS" Schrub was once again electric with his AWP all throughout the group stages. EnVyUs wiped Immortals (16-5), Team Liquid (16-4) and OpTic Gaming (16-5) off the map in all three of its wins. Once it got to the Round of 6, though, the wheels of the EnVyUs hype train completely fell off. kennyS only put out an ADR of 67.5 in the series, which was one of the worst in the lobby. Given that EnVyUs have finished better than 5th-8th place in just five of the 14 premier tournaments this year, it's clear something needs to be changed moving forward.
Team Dignitas was one of the bigger disappointments of the weekend. After such a strong run at EPICENTER: Moscow just last week, many thought that it would follow up that performance with a deep run in the Pro League Finals. That couldn't have been further from the truth, however. It started off with a big 16-3 win over NRG and a close 16-14 win against Ninjas in Pyjamas, and looked poised to come out of Group B towards the top. It then faltered with three straight losses to FaZe Clan, SK and Cloud9. That left it with a 2-3 record, which was not good enough to make it to the next round. It will have to wait until Group D of ELEAGUE Season 2 on November 18 for another chance at backing up its EPICENTER performance.
Team Liquid was another team that put together a disappointing run during the group stages. After strong performances at the last two major events (runner-up at ESL One: Cologne and 3rd-4th at ESL One: New York), seeing the team only win one game in groups was a huge letdown. Not only did the team go 1-3, but it was an abysmal minus-28 in round differential, which was the second-worst differential behind the 0-5 NRG's minus-30. Liquid will have until Northern Arena 2016 - Montreal on November 11-13 to cleanse the demons that plagued this performance.
Both FaZe Clan and Immortals were bounced from groups after posting top-tier performance during the regular season. FaZe finished 4th in the EU and Immortals finished 2nd in NA, but both ended 4th in its respective groups. The quick finish for Immortals was certainly tough to swallow since it happened before the hometown fans in Brazil.
OpTic Gaming and mousesports were two teams to make it out of groups that not many had predicted. It seems as though the lower level of competition in Group A was a big reason for this. While the teams looked good in groups, both fell apart in the Round of 6 and semifinals. OpTic was dismantled by Cloud9 in the Round of 6, with Will "RUSH" Wierzba being the only one to post a positive KD in the series that saw them lose 16-12 and 16-2. Mousesports, on the other hand, was seeded directly to the semifinals after its first place finish in Group A. In that semifinal match against Cloud9, though, mousesports was also picked apart. It lost 16-9 and 16-10, with only Timo "Spiidi" Richter posting a positive KD.
