ESL Pro League Season 14. Group C

It’s time to examine the most unpredictable group in the tournament – C, where six teams will compete for three slots. The participant list: Natus Vincere, mousesports, fnatic, Evil Geniuses, BIG, FaZe Clan. This group stands out because there’s only one clear favorite here – Natus Vincere, while the others are roughly on par in terms of strength, even though EG is near the bottom of the top 20 and fnatic is ranked 60th in the world.

Natus Vincere

Na’Vi knocked Gambit off the top of the world rankings before their break, which seemed impossible. This was due to back-to-back wins at StarLadder CIS RMR and ESL Cologne. Fans are used to seeing ‘Born to Win’ shine at LAN events. In Cologne, expectations were met: s1mple broke the ace record, posted an insane rating, and the rest of the team kept up. After that performance, Alexander Kostylev has likely secured the title of player of the year. Statistically, Na’Vi’s win rate over the last three months is 75.9%. Their best maps are Nuke (87.5%) and Inferno (70%). Results:

IEM Cologne – 1.
StarLadder CIS RMR – 1.
Blast Premier Spring Finals – 2.

Expected position in the group: 1. Natus Vincere’s only real rival right now is Gambit. The players are in form, tactics are working well, and morale is high.

Mousesports

The ‘Mice’ made two major roster changes at the start of the year – replacing the sniper and the captain. Frederik acoR Gulstran became the main sniper, replacing Chris chrisJ de Jong, and Christopher dexter Nong took over calling plays from Finn karrigan Andersen. The Australian, by the way, took several months to adapt after moving from Australia, shouldering a heavy load of responsibility. There were also rumors about acquiring ropz, but the price was too high, so no one bought him. Over three months, mousesports’ win rate is 64.3%. Their best maps are Dust2 (100%) and Inferno (83.3%). Results:

IEM Cologne – 13-16.
Gamers Without Borders – 3-4.
Flashpoint 3 – 1.

Expected position in the group: 2-3. Mousesports delivered a great result at Flashpoint, but got eliminated early at IEM Cologne. Still, it wasn’t a total disaster – they put up a tough fight against Gambit and Liquid. Individually, acoR has underperformed lately, killing very few opponents. If the sniper isn’t making an impact, winning becomes tough.

FaZe Clan

Dane karrigan moved from mousesports to FaZe because the team had struggled to find a proper captain for a long time. They benched coldzera, and olofmeister returned to the lineup for the umpteenth time, delivering solid LAN play in Cologne. This was partly due to a role change. They also brought in a new analyst who previously worked with mousesports. The team’s win rate is 46.7%. Their best maps are Vertigo (100%) and Mirage (75%). Results:

IEM Cologne – 3-4.
Gamers Without Borders – 5-6.
Blast Premier Spring Final 2021 – 7-8.

Expected position in the group: 2-3. Nearly all players noted that things became much more comfortable after Finn Andersen joined, with some gaining more freedom and others having responsibilities lightened.

BIG

Berlin International Gaming benched XANTARES and brought in Scandinavian player gade, who previously played for North. Media reports suggested the Turk, along with woxic, wanted to form a Turkish lineup and find an organization. As for gade, there won’t be any language barriers since he speaks German well. His main role in the team is leadership, which he’ll sometimes share with Tabsen. The win rate over the past few months is 62.5%. Their best maps are Vertigo (75%) and Dust2 (72.7%). Results:

IEM Cologne – 7-8.
Elisa Invitational Summer – 5-8.
Gamers Without Borders – 1.

Expected position in the group: 4. The German organization was one of the best online in 2020, but this year everything changed – their play became inconsistent, and team chemistry faded. It’s not XANTARES’s fault. Fresh blood like gade might help them climb back into the top 5.

Evil Genuises

Once a formidable team, Evil Geniuses has become just an average mid-tier squad during the pandemic. This year, their only notable result is third place at the tier-2 event Snow Sweet Snow. They played in the American region for a long time, where competition is lacking. The players lost their edge and performed worse after moving to Europe. Tarik was the first to be on the chopping block, then coach zews was let go, and recently stanislaw decided to take a temporary break. The team’s win rate is 27.3%. Their best maps are Vertigo (100%) and Mirage (66.7%). Recent tournament placements:

IEM Cologne Play-In – 9-12.
Blast Premier Spring Final – 7-8.
IEM Summer – 5-6.

Expected position in the group: 5-6. Evil Geniuses removed their weak link in stanislaw, but his spot was filled by the team coach, who hasn’t played in about a year. It’s rare for teams to perform well with a coach in a player’s role.

Fnatic

Fnatic has been the biggest disappointment on the pro scene in the first half of the year. Even roster changes, like replacing flusha with young talent Jackinho, didn’t help. JW and Golden lost confidence and underperformed individually, leading to more swaps. They couldn’t form a pure Swedish team due to a shortage of strong players in the region, so they went for an international mix. Currently, the team is ranked 60th in the world, with a win rate of zero – it’s pointless to discuss maps in this case. Results: