Much like the week prior, ESEA Season 39 EU week 5 was a stage for plenty of Counter-Strike and some surprises. Team Finest lost their first series of the season, SINNERS and Entropiq are finally starting to show glimpses of their true value, and Copenhagen Flames are in a close fight for the top spot of their group with BLINK, 1WIN, Movistar Riders and Sprout.
Group A
The first game of the group occurred between Entropiq and DBL Poney, two teams who aspire to a deep run in the playoffs. After a 16-4 loss on Vertigo, picked by the French, the Russian squad won their Ancient pick 16-13, and the winner of the Overpass decider had to be settled in overtime. 19-15 was the result in favor of Entropiq.
The next day, GamerLegion faced off against Anonymo in a series where both teams won their respective pick and the decider was clearly dominated by the German org, who took the map 16-2, winning the series. Up next was SINNERS vs. the undefeated Team Finest. The all-Czech squad played greatly as individuals and as a team, which resulted in a surprising 2-0 loss for the European mix.
At the same time as that upset was unfolding, forZe were battling it out against AGO. Both teams are in an awkward position in the standings and want to quickly rack up some points. forZe are close to demotion, and AGO are just below making playoffs in the current standings. The match started with a surprising 16-6 map win from the Russian squad on AGO’s pick. The Polish quickly reset and went on to get the reverse sweep by winning forZe’s pick 16-14 and then the decider 16-9.
To end the group A games, SINNERS played again, this time against DBL Poney, and Entropiq also had to play another time, but against Wisla Krakow. The Poney’s only game of the week went their way after a close 16-13 win on Vertigo and a dominant 16-5 score on Ancient. Entropiq also quickly dispatched the Krakow-based organization in two maps; first on Mirage, 16-12, on the back of a great skill display from Aleksey ‘El1an’ Gusev, then on Nuke, 16-10, after an amazing performance from Igor ‘Forester’ Bezotecheskiy and El1an.
Group b
The group B matches started with 1WIN winning over Sprout after 3 maps. After losing their pick 16-12, 1WIN came back and took home the win after a 16-11 scoreline on Sprout’s pick and a 16-8 win on the Vertigo decider. The recently promoted Russian squad is getting along well in tier 2 European CS, having a chance to close out the group stage at the top of their group. After that game, Movistar faced off against LDLC. The Spanish had yet to lose a game and the French only had 1 win: everyone expected that to stay the same. The Riders calmly completed their duty and dispatched LDLC in two maps. The first one was Nuke, 16-7, and then it was Vertigo, 16-13.
With some similarities to LDLC’s record, sAw only had 1 win coming into this week, but even that win came from a forfeit and it doesn’t count for their record. The Portuguese are still going through a rough patch and this last week didn’t help them. sAw had to play Nemiga, a team within their grasp, but they couldn’t quite edge out the Belarusian organization on the first map and, after comfortably winning their opponents pick, they had the chance to win the series on Vertigo, the decider, but choked and couldn’t close out the map, losing the series 2-1 to Nemiga. sAw had to play again, a couple of days later but first, take a look at the Copenhagen Flames triple-header.
The Danish squad had to play three times in just two days. Their first match came against Sprout in a tight series with both teams winning their picks and the Flames almost choking the decider. After having a 14-6 lead, the Danish fell asleep and Sprout managed to get the game 15-14, but weren’t able to push the game to overtime as CPH Flames finally ended the map and series.
The very next day, the Flames played against BLINK first and then against Movistar. The game against the Kosovars didn’t quite go their way as the BLINK squad managed to collectively turn up their game after the first map loss. The second map was close but the Kosovo-based organization was able to take it, and the decider. The story of the game against Movistar took a 180-degree turn as the Danish were able to win the series 2-0 after two maps with the same score, 16-11. Sprout also played twice on the last day of play of the week. Firstly against LDLC and then against sAw. Both series ended 2-0 in favor of the German org.
