Looking ahead to the playoffs: Who will move on in ESL Pro League Season 13?

The ESL Pro League Season 13 group stage has concluded and we’re looking ahead to the series we’ll get to see in the playoff race.

Let’s take a look at the format first as there are some things we should keep in mind before going forward. In total twelve teams managed to qualify for the playoff stage, with 8 of those being dealt into the playoff bracket immediately, being the number 2 and 3 of their respective groups.

Teams that finished first in their groups will gain an advantage however, as they’ll play a play-in match. The winner of that match will be dealt immediately into the semifinals, while the loser enters in the quarterfinals. The matches that are being played this way are between Heroic and Ninjas in Pyjamas, followed by the match between Gambit Esports and Astralis.

FURIA or FunPlus?

FURIA sure is an interesting team to discuss. While they came in swinging in their group by defeating both Team One and MIBR, they also upset Natus Vincere on Mirage and Nuke. Especially Kaike “KSCERATO” Certo has been stepping up big. They would go on to be tamed by both Cloud9 and tournament favorite Gambit Esports however in their final two matches, perhaps stunting the momentum they’ve gained.

They are facing FunPlus Phoenix, who are currently playing with Miikka “SuNny” Kemppi as a stand-in following the release of ChrisJ. They seem to have found some form after defeating teams such as Renegades, OG and BIG but the latter two have been a bit more volatile as of late and Heroic disposed of them rather handily. On paper, it looks like FURIA has had the better results, yet they lost momentum, so FunPlus might get an opportunity.

North America and Europe

When it comes to the group stage, there’s no doubt Team Liquid has looked strong. They disposed of threats such as Evil Geniuses and Fnatic, only dropping a series to Astralis with both maps going to overtime. Adding Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo did seem to bring a certain calmness to the roster and with Jacky “Stewie2K” Yik and Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowksi stepping up lately, they seem poised to push into the next round.

There’s no doubt that G2 Esports faced some stiff competition in a group that contained Team Vitality, FaZe Clan and Ninjas in Pyjamas, with ENCE also finding their form. Dropping Kenny “KennyS” Schrub in favor of Audric “JaCkz” Jug, G2 Esports hasn’t looked completely comfortable yet. Despite this, they won out against FaZe, group winner Ninjas in Pyjamas and Vitality and should surely give Liquid a run for their money.

Surging talent versus stagnating veterans

Considering the teams in group C, a lot of people expected Natus Vincere to rather handily secure second place and compete for first with Gambit, yet they ended up in third. Despite Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev stepping up time and time again, the rest of the roster has seemingly struggled to keep up.

As NaVi take on Complexity, they face a roster that has been looking solid for months now, even winning their group at BLAST Premier Spring by defeating teams such as Vitality, G2 Esports and Evil Geniuses. While Natus Vincere might have the edge on paper, we’d have no qualms about pushing Complexity as a potential winner in their series.

Can ENCE shine again?

ENCE has brought new players to their roster back in Januari, with Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer as their IGL, while maintaining both Joonas “doto” Forss and Aleksi “allu” Jalli. A move that seemingly has paid off for them as they surged to second place in a stacked group, featuring Ninjas in Pyjamas and G2 Esports. Their final match against FaZe was an absolute blowout however, as they lost 16-4 and 16-3 on Train and Inferno respectively. Inconsistency seems to be a huge problem for this ENCE roster right now and it might cost them.

If there’s one team that might punish that inconsistency, it’s their opponents Virtus.Pro. They made it to third place in a group that featured Liquid and Astralis (who were both of their losses) and have been a mainstay at the top of CS:GO for quite some time now. With players such as Dzhami “Jame” Ali and Mareks “YEKINDAR” Galinksis in their midst, who are capable of putting up game-defining performances, they should be the favorites heading into their match against ENCE.

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