ESL Professional League Season 16 Grand Finals Recap

We glance again on the incendiary CSGO motion that happened on the final two days of Professional League 16.

One other wonderful season of ESL’s flagship match has ended, and with it, a brand new winner has been topped. The primary Semifinal was some of the closely-contested matches in the entire match, and though the second was a straight sweep, it nonetheless provided loads of pleasure within the type of a second map that went into Extra time. Within the Grand Closing, French group Workforce Vitality locked horns with North American giants Workforce Liquid in a 5-map frag fest — two of which needed to be determined in Extra time. 

For those who aren’t up to date about what occurred within the Quarterfinals, right here’s our recap of that. Let’s take a look at what happened in additional element with none additional ado. 

Semifinal 1: Cloud9 vs Workforce Liquid

Cloud9 received their group to qualify for the Quarterfinals straight, however they'd misplaced to Workforce Liquid within the Group Stage. This meant that the Semifinal was basically anybody’s sport. C9 seemed extraordinarily robust with a number of in-form gamers, however Liquid have at all times been a tenacious drive of nature punching above the load that others consider they will deal with. This had all of the makings of a possible ESL Professional League — and certainly CSGO — traditional, and it delivered with three very shut maps.

The Match 

Liquid began the proceedings by proving why they picked Inferno with a robust 16-11 win. After a robust T-side displaying throughout which they picked up 8 rounds, the American facet managed to restrict their former regional rivals to simply 4 rounds within the second half to shut the sport out. Keith “NAF” Markovic led the way in which for the winners, undoing the efforts of Sergey ”Ax1Le” Rykhtorov who topped the server.

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C9 got here again robust on their very own map choose of Historical as Abay “HObbit” Hasenov joined forces with Ax1Le to finish a spectacular comeback. The CIS lineup had solely managed 3 rounds on the T facet of the notoriously CT-sided map, however their defenses have been solely cracked as soon as as they received the sport 16-13. 

The tightest, most hotly-contested sport of the lot, Mud 2 ended with the identical end result as Historical, however in favor of Liquid this time round. Dmitriy ”sh1ro” Sokolov’s good efficiency was outdone by Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis, and though each halves have been extraordinarily even for each groups, Liquid nearly managed to eke out a win. 

Semifinal 2: G2 Esports vs Workforce Vitality 

G2 had proven nice resolve to take out the may of Natus Vincere, and have been, albeit arguably, the favorites coming into this matchup. Vitality had proven utter dominance in their very own journey by way of the Group Stage, however their battle with Outsiders had proven loads of exploitable weaknesses of their sport. It appeared that the group’s particular person superstars can be the deciding elements. 

The Match 

Lotan “Spinx” Giladi and Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, the latter of whom was elected the MVP of the match, led the way in which for Vitality because the French clan destroyed their regional rivals 16-8 on Mirage. Vitality adopted up a comparatively wobbly CT half with a robust efficiency on the T-side to win G2’s map choose.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYk1qHM1PlU[/embed]

Inferno appeared like it could simply go to G2 and take issues to a 3rd map, however a completely good comeback by Vitality introduced issues to a tie earlier than they marched forwards to a 19-16 victory. Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov topped the charts total, however Emil “Magisk” Reif and ZywOo stepped as much as convey triumph for his or her group.

Grand Closing: Workforce Liquid vs Workforce Vitality

Season 9 winners Liquid have been again within the closing to attempt to declare their second title, whereas Vitality, who had by no means received Professional League earlier than, have been gunning for his or her first. With a whopping 5 maps on the road, it wasn’t only a take a look at of wits and reflexes, but additionally endurance. As anybody who has performed 5 match maps in a row will know, that is no cakewalk — particularly with 1000's of {dollars} on the road.

The Match

YEKINDAR stepped up in a giant method alongside Joshua “oSee” Ohm to convey victory to his group on their very own first map choose of Inferno. Liquid have been completely dominant on the T-side, and didn’t waste a lot time in closing the sport out 16-7 as soon as switched. 

Instantly after getting thrashed, Vitality confirmed simply why Mud 2 was their very own map choose with a stable 16-7 win of their very own. As soon as once more, Magisk and ZywOo did the heavy lifting for the French-and-Danish squad, who had a robust T-side earlier than shutting down their opponents on the protection.

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Probably the most intense match of the match noticed Vitality take the third map after a chronic struggle of attrition. Vitality’s unimaginable CT-side maintain noticed them go 11-4 up within the first half, earlier than Liquid returned to convey the sport to a useless warmth. The groups then burned by way of two time beyond regulation rounds earlier than Liquid outlasted Vitality within the third, successful 25-21. ZywOo had a beast of a sport with a ridiculous 51 kills throughout 46 rounds, however the contributions of NAF, oSee, and YEKINDAR on the opposite facet have been simply insurmountable with out sufficient help.

The penultimate map of the match, Overpass, additionally went to Extra time. In contrast to Mirage, nonetheless, the 2 groups had very even halves this time round, with Vitality managing to discover a method out proper on the finish for a nerve-racking however profitable end. As soon as once more, it was a battle between ZywOo and NAF on the prime, which the Frenchman received.

It’s a mark of simply how constant ZywOo was all through the Grand Closing: he was within the prime two for his group on each map and the very best outright on the final three maps. Boasting an HLTV ranking of 1.51 within the final map, he lifted Vitality to a 16-11 victory, and certainly, an ESL Professional League title. It wouldn’t be proper to exclude the contributions of Magisk and Spinx, although, as Vitality put up a robust protection earlier than outdoing Liquid’s rating on the assault. 

Copyright: Helena Kristiansson/ESL

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