https://www.cybersport.ru/counter-strike-go/articles/gla1ve-vernul-nam-astralis-a-navi-proigrali-sami-sebe-glavnoe-ob-esl-pro-league-season-12

NAVI is great, but it’s time to do something about instability

Natus Vincere did not become a champion, but overall they had an outstanding tournament. S1mple beat everyone (and would have won the 11th MVP medal if they were issued), electronic in the semifinals with Heroic broke his own record for frags in his career, and for Perfecto, the championship became the best ever in NAVI. Only flamie disappointed somewhat, which even Boombl4 surpassed, but in comparison with many other tournament participants, there is not much to criticize the Russian for.

Natus Vincere definitely recovered after the disastrous ESL One Cologne, but still, how the team B1ad3 lost in the final leaves many questions. On the one hand, NAVI showed a serious character: comebacks like what we saw on Train are a rarity in the performance of the team. On the other hand, the team seems to have not yet learned how to cope with tilt.

During the championship, NAVI had no equal neither in the group nor in the playoffs – only Astralis created problems. But it’s not only about the Danes, but also about the overconfidence of Natus Vincere. In the decisive match, ours were ruined either by excessive nervousness, or by a banal misunderstanding of what to do against four-time world champions – otherwise it is difficult to explain such a number of lost clutches and situations where it was necessary to defend a planted bomb.

NAVI once again proved that they can easily (and this is the main thing) beat those who are nominally weaker. But the problem is that there is still no tournament for the tournament – and it is better to lose two or three times to Astralis in the finals than to win somewhere, and somewhere not even to leave the group.

The main thing for NAVI now is to perform with dignity at the last tournament of the RMR series and close the issue of reaching the Major without any problems. After that, only tournaments with top European teams will remain, based on the results of which it will be possible to draw conclusions about how successful the B1ad3 system is.

Astralis with gla1ve is a completely different team

After the break, the captain burst onto the stage with two feet and clearly explained that Astralis’ recent failures were due precisely to his absence. Gla1ve again joined the roster before the ESL Pro League – rested and collected even more information about both his team and rivals: it was not for nothing that he was the right hand of zonic when he was inactive.

In ESL Pro League, only three teams created problems for Astralis. At the group stage, the Danes lost to Complexity Gaming in the very first match with oBo – after that, the team replaced Bubzkji with es3tag and won all the remaining matches without much nerves.

The playoffs of zonic’s players also started with a defeat – they lost no chance to Heroic. The community immediately began to assert that now the title of the first team in Denmark belongs to the cadiaN roster. But, as it turned out, it was premature: Astralis in a tight fight went over the heads of Team Spirit, Complexity Gaming and mousesports and took revenge from their compatriots. Well, in the final Astralis had a comeback from a score of 0: 2.

Of course, the success of Astralis can be called an accident – if there weren’t a double-elimination bracket at the ESL Pro League, the team could well have ended up behind the top 5. But you can pay attention to another fact: Astralis won the last tournament before gla1ve left and the first one after returning – there were no victories in the interval.

Speaking of personalities, Astralis (in a good way) did not surprise. Device played great again, dupreeh and Magisk were stable, es3tag perfectly replaced Bubzkji, and gla1ve played a plus. That was enough to win.

At the end of the championship, interest continues to be aroused by the same question – what is the optimal lineup of Astralis? Firstly, it is not clear how deeply Bubzkji will settle in the reserve: he was removed from the championship after the very first defeat, the team played all other meetings with a roster with es3tag. Second, what will happen to Xyp9x? According to rumors, he is already training with the team, but when will he return? Astralis is about to compete in the all-important DreamHack Open Fall 2023, which must be won in order to earn the highest possible seed at the Major. Will the team take risks and make replacements?

Will Heroic – Astralis become a full-fledged derby?

For a long time there were no real derbies on the Counter-Strike scene. Astralis and Virtus.pro, Fnatic and Ninjas in Pajamas are a thing of the past – the rosters have changed, the edge has gone. But it is possible that the confrontation between the Danes from Astralis and Heroic will now become fundamental.

Why should this game become a derby? There are several reasons for this. Firstly, Heroic is Astralis’ direct competitor, at least in the fight for Danish fans. The cadiaN team has been performing better lately and has now reached second place in the HLTV.org rating. Of course, after the ESL Pro League, the situation will change, but not critical – nevertheless, in the face-to-face confrontation at the tournament, they have a draw, besides, HUNDEN’s wards finished the championship not much lower than their counterpart.

The second most important moment is the drama against the background of the scandal with the coaches. HUNDEN, removed from the championships, also used a bug in the match with Astralis at DreamHack Masters Spring 2023. This is a very serious trigger for Astralis – both the head of Astralis Nikolai Niholm and the captain of the gla1ve roster spoke on this topic. Astralis is also unhappy that HUNDEN is still in Heroic. After the bans, many teams found a way to keep mentors: they were simply transferred to the position of analysts. Yes, the impact of coaches will be lower directly in matches and tournaments, but in general they will continue their work, and this is the main thing.

It is more annoying to Astralis that Heroic players were not punished – both gla1ve and zonic believe that cadiaN and his teammates knew that the coach was breaking the rules. Captain Astralis urged the players to publicly admit that they are clean – but all participants remain silent, and cadiaN responds named gla1ve a brawler.

There is just over a week left until the last European RMR tournament, DreamHack Open Fall 2023, where the Danes can meet already in the group stage – I wonder what will accompany the match on social networks. In addition, Astralis will have a chance to point Heroic to its place, and the latter will have a chance to prove that their summer success is not an accident, but the result of hard work.

Team Spirit becomes the main underdog of the scene

Team Spirit this year I just want to applaud, among all the CIS teams, she showed the best progress. The chopper roster confidently performs in online tournaments with tier-2 teams and regularly upsets the top teams – FaZe, Vitality and Ninjas in Pajamas will confirm. Still, Spirit has not yet grown to heroic qualities – it has not yet taken high places in championships with top rosters.

At major tournaments, the team is constantly running out of steam in the playoffs, although in the group stages they regularly show excellent performance. The 12th season of the ESL Pro League was no exception, but here Spirit fought on equal terms with the future champion in the lower bracket and, in fact, lost to itself – the team made a lot of mistakes.

Alas, Team Spirit was also ruined by instability. But if in the case of NAVI we are talking more about a team problem, here it is about the loss of certain players. If mir showed excellent performance again, then somedieyoung had one of the worst tournaments with Team Spirit. From the point of view of frags, chopper also let down, from which you usually still expect a positive difference between murders and deaths.

Team Spirit has enormous potential, and it is time to realize it. Like NAVI, Spirit’s task now is not to fail at IEM New York, earn a slot in the Major and continue working calmly. We hope they succeed.

Time for ESL to bring teams from Europe and North America together

The results of ESL Pro League Season 12 in the two leading regions turned out to be predictable, and if in America the top 4 were occupied by the same teams, then in Europe, as usual, new champions, heroes and losers. And therefore it is very interesting how FURIA, Team Liquid, 100 Thieves and Evil Geniuses would have shown themselves in the matches with the Europeans.

None of the top four teams in North America will look superfluous among the European tops – and perhaps even more appropriate than some local teams, if we evaluate purely athletic performance. The Brazilians look the most interesting now. Not only because they won EPL Season 12, but also because only one of twelve events have not made it to the top 3 since February. The team probably has many times more ambitions than just keeping the top 1 in North America. FURIA has everything to repeat and multiply the success of FalleN’s compositions – it remains to wait for the end of the pandemic and not burn out.

Fortunately, some Americans may soon be moving to Europe for upcoming tournaments. Rumored to be BLAST wants bring Liquid, 100 Thieves, Evil Geniuses and … MIBR to Europe for the autumn championship. As Jarek DeKay Lewis told, Americans at European championships wants to see and ESL, but he did not name specific teams. I would like to believe that there are FURIA on the list – many, including gla1ve, will be glad.

What did the rest of the teams show?

Mousesports now feels a little more confident: the team reached the top 4 for the first time in a long time. Ropz was upset and metal (turned out to be the best after s1mple), but one thing was not enough – the other members of mouz played rather mediocre. If karrigan and his teammates plan to advance to the Major, then they have no right to play worse – the last RMR championship is not far off.

Complexity Gaming is pain. Not only has the team already lost their chances to reach the Major, but now the young talent oBo has also left the team. At the end of the group stage, it seemed that blameF and its partners were one of the main contenders for victory, but right before the playoffs, the team lost a player who was bored of their homeland. What will happen to the team now is not clear. Most likely, the club will be looking for an accessible European, but who? In short, a very nice project by Jason Lake is now overgrown with question marks.

North America is now undergoing a total restructuring. The most offensive thing about Cloud9: the rather nice JT squad simply failed the tournament – apparently, the players were affected by the news that the club was no longer interested in them. The team runs the risk of being left without organization, and it’s not just the outcome of the EPL – there are simply no interested clubs.

It is also unclear what will happen to Gen.G. First, the daps captain was kicked out of the team, and a little-known cxzi was taken in his place, which, as expected, did not become the team’s superweapon. Then It revealedthat one of the participants may follow the daps into the Valorant roster – if this really happens, it is completely unclear what to do Gen.G. There are simply no obvious options for strengthening on the market now, and the Korean club is unlikely to fork out for the transfer of the same oBo. The outlook for Gen.G is very dim.

There is not much to say about the rest of the teams. In Europe, BIG has proven that it is still very strong, and ENCE is stable, but not gaining. For the rest of the teams, the 12th season of the ESL Pro League obviously does not count.