FaZe Clan's camcorder and the tournament's major disappointments - what we've learned from ESL Pro League Season 17
Elen StelmakhESL Pro League Season 17 is over. To be honest, the championship was a mixed bag, as many teams that could have been competing for high places either dropped out in the early stages, or didn't make the playoffs at all. At the same time we've seen the return of FaZe Clan, who in the course of the tournament, especially in the playoffs, began to resemble themselves from last season. All in all, there is enough to talk about and we would like to sum up the results of ESL Pro League Season 17.
Return of FaZe Clan and Intel Grand Slam
In this championship we could once again see the FaZe Clan that in the first half of last year demolished everyone in its path. We can't say that the team held a model tournament, after all, RobbaN's wards managed to register an "outstanding" defeat by Vitality in the group. However, in the play-offs FaZe Clan really showed their iconic style, managing to beat FURIA, FORZE, NAVI and Cloud9.
Along with that victory, the team also made history by winning their fourth Intel Grand Slam season. And there's a feeling that the team didn't get that opportunity any further, as a lot would have changed with CS2.
G2 Esports' unexpected slump
Since last December, G2 Esports has cemented its leadership not only in all sorts of rankings, but also won two major championships. It goes without saying that ESL Pro League Season 17 was seen as another tournament where the Samurai would prove themselves. However, in the group stage, the team was defeated by Cloud9, and also suffered occasional setbacks.
Many thought that after a month of preparation, G2 Esports would approach the playoffs fully prepared. However, the team unexpectedly lost to ENCE in the second round, putting a question mark over their dominance. The Samurai no longer seem to be the favourites to win the upcoming major, but they still need to qualify, remembering their defeat at the last RMR tournament.
npl still fails to fulfill its role
For the third tournament in a row, many conclude that NAVI made a mistake with the replacement of sdy. Or rather, npl still fails to cope with his role, he simply can't shoot in important matches. Yes, the youngster did manage to break the K/D unit in some places, but more often than not we've seen 6-8 kills per card. Of course, with that kind of performance you can't compete for high places. Fortunately, born to win played noticeably better as a team than in Katowice. In the course of the tournament, NAVI was gaining momentum, but failed to meet FaZe Clan in the semi-finals.
Main disappointments of the tournament
Among the major disappointments of the tournament, we should mention several teams. The main criterion should be considered expectations for the represented teams, which were clearly exaggerated, but they failed to justify the advances they were given.
- Complexity Gaming. Everyone can speculate for a long time, but there's only one conclusion: The North Americans failed to consolidate their brief success in Katowice and returned to square one.
- BIG. The German side continue to rebuild, but even in this format had enough chances to make the playoffs; Yet here the team disappointed the fans, squandering all their chances, which is simply unacceptable.
- Imperial Esports. Last place was clearly not the result that many had hoped for; But most interestingly, the Brazilians also missed their chances, and missed some good chances.
- Ninjas in Pyjamas. It seems that Aleksib's idea quickly ran out of steam, and the loss was the team's fatal mistake; However, even with such introductions the Ninjas were bound to make the playoffs, but managed to lose their matches in the group.
- OG. The team lost their leader and was unable to put up a fight; however, only the clear outsiders fared worse, as was the case with Ninjas in Pyjamas; but no one expected such a failure from OG.
- Team Spirit. We can say that the squad lacked experience, but reaching the playoffs in the last two majors hints at their lack of stability and the inability to make the playoffs.
We can also mention Evil Geniuses, but there's a feeling that they've been around for a long time now.
Championship openings
Let's move on to the participants who managed to surprise during ESL Pro League Season 17. There are a bit fewer teams here, but enough to at least make up for a grueling month of competition.
- FORZE. FORZE had a very strong showing in Group D with three victories, not over ATK or Rare Atom, but over NAVI, Team Spirit and ENCE; the team lost to FaZe Clan in the quarterfinals, but even without that the guys posted a good showing, leaving hopes for the upcoming RMR tournament.
- Rare Atom. The Chinese are worth to be commended for only one victory over Team Liquid, which upset them on the first day of Group D. But they kept fighting hard and clearly played to their strengths.
- paiN Gaming. The Brazilian squad was especially impressive, they escaped from a tough group, and in the process recovered from their opening defeat by Ninjas in Pyjamas; they kept on showing strong play in the playoffs, and knocked out Team Liquid.
Among the openings we can mention ENCE, who until now was not very dangerous, but now made it to the semifinals. Also quite unexpectedly the Brazilians from 00NATION made it to the playoffs, but they were stopped there very quickly.
ESL Pro League Season 17 took place from February 22 to March 26 in Malta. During the championship, 32 teams from CIS, Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia and Oceania fought for a combined prize pool of $850,000 as well as entry to IEM Cologne 2023 and BLAST World Final 2023 for the winner.
Intermediate results for ESL Pro League Season 17
- 1st place: FaZe Clan - $200,000 + 3,000 points + entry to IEM Cologne 2023 and BLAST World Final 2023
- 2nd place: Cloud9 - $90,000 + 2,000 points
- 3-4th place: ENCE and NAVI - $50,000 + 1,200 points
- 5th-8th place: MOUZ, Vitality, FORZE and Heroic - $35,000 + 500 points
- 9th-12th place: Outsiders, G2 Esports, FURIA and paiN Gaming - $25,000
- 13-16th place: Movistar Riders, Team Liquid, fnatic and 00NATION - $20,000
- 17-20th place: Eternal Fire, BIG, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Astralis - $15,000
- 21st-28th place: MIBR, IHC Esports, SAW, Complexity Gaming, Grayhound Gaming, OG, Rare Atom and Team Spirit - $8,000
- Place 29-32: Evil Geniuses, Imperial Esports, Rooster and ATK - $4,000
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Elen Stelmakh is a creative individual dedicated to advancing gaming culture through articles and visual design. As a full-time EGamersWorld author and designer for a gaming website, Elen not only creates content but also infuses it with energy and creativity.