This article is part of our CS:GO Recap series.
With the regular season nearing its end, Week 9 gave a few Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams a chance to secure a top-five spot in the European ESL Pro League standings and qualify for the June finals in Dallas. After a late surge in ESL play, G2 Esports managed to take advantage with a win against Astralis in the penultimate week of competition.
G2 started strong on Train with twelve straight round wins until Astralis won two of its own to close the half 13-2. Astralis had a smooth start to the second half with four consecutive rounds, but G2 came back and eventually closed out Game 1 16-12. The series shifted to Cache, where G2 won the pistol round and two more for a 3-0 start. Astralis struggled to earn round wins throughout the half and again entered the second half down 13-2. Astralis won five straight to start the second, but G2 took the game 16-9 and a 2-0 sweep of its top-five foe.
Virtus.pro, which has sunk to the bottom third of the standings in recent weeks, looked to salvage its season in a Tuesday match against FaZe Clan. The FaZe Clan offense jumped out to an early 4-0 lead over Virtus.pro on Inferno and stifled its opponent to take a Game 1 win 16-11. The second half didn't go much better for Virtus.pro, either, as it fell into an 11-4 hole in the first half on Nuke and lost five rounds late for a 16-4 loss.
North had smooth sailing Wednesday with a crushing defeat of an already struggling Ninjas in Pyjamas for a 2-0 sweep. The series started on Cache, and North won seven straight to start the half until Richard "Xizt" Landstrom won a 1-on-2 to win the first round for NiP. That was the only positive for the Ninjas in Game 1, though, as the Danes of North closed the half 14-1 and eventual 16-1 win. North continued to dominate in Game 2 with a big 5-0 start for the offense on Cobblestone and closed the half up 12-3, then blanked the Swedish offense in the second half for four straight to take the series 16-3.
Natus Vincere and mousesports met up Thursday in a matchup between top-five teams that began on Nuke. Na'Vi took the pistol round to start, and both teams traded rounds early in an even match until mousesports took control of the first half up 6-2. Natus Vincere managed to claw its way back to even the score 6-6, but mousesports closed the half on a 3-0 run to go up 9-6. Mousesports went out in the second half with four straight wins en route to a 16-8 victory. The series then moved to Mirage, where Natus Vincere was shutout by mousesports in a stunning 16-0 Game 2 win to sweep the series 2-0.
With Week 9 closed, a few European teams have one more chance to sneak into the top-five spot for the finals. North, mousesports, G2, Astralis and Natus Vincere are the top-five with a week to go, and FaZe Clan and Fnatic remain in contention for the fifth spot. With some teams competing in Intel Extreme Masters Sydney from May 3-7, Week 10 of ESL action will begin May 9.
