Heroic and Natus Vincere both pulled off sweeps Friday to remain unbeaten in Group D at the ESL Pro League Season 15 in Dusseldorf, Germany.
Heroic (3-0) posted a 2-0 win over Evil Geniuses (0-3), and Natus Vincere (3-0) finished the day’s competition with a 2-1 decision over Complexity Gaming (0-3). The day’s first match saw Astralis (2-1) move a game ahead of AGO (1-2) for third in the group with a 2-0 triumph.
Heroic jumped out to leads of 6-0 and 12-3 and coasted to a 16-6 win on its first map, Inferno, but had a tougher time on Nuke, rallying from an early 5-0 deficit to win 16-12.
Ismail “refrezh” Ali posted 53 kills and a plus-25 kills-to-deaths differential for the all-Danish Heroic squad. Bulgaria’s Tsvetelin “CeRq” logged 34 kills and a minus-1 K-D differential for Evil Geniuses.
Natus Vincere and Complexity waged two close maps, but NaVi prevailed on Ancient 16-13 despite Complexity’s comeback bid from 12-3 down. The same pattern emerged on Dust II, with NaVi jumping in front 12-1 before holding on to win 16-14.
Valerii “b1t” Vakhovskiy of Ukraine led NaVi with 49 kills and a plus-12 differential, and he was followed by Denis “electroNic” Sharipov of Russia at 47 and plus-9. Justin “FaNg” Coakley of Canada and Ricky “floppy” Kemery of the U.S. each had 46 kills for Complexity. The former led the team with a plus-6 differential.
Astralis defeated AGO 16-13 on Mirage and 16-9 on Nuke. Benjamin “blameF” Bremer had 52 kills and a plus-22 K-D differential while Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke posted 54 and plus-18 K-D differential for all-Danish Astralis. Lukasz “mwlky” Pachucki led AGO with 36 kills, but nobody on the all-Polish team finished in plus territory.
The 24-team Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event is divided into four round-robin groups in the opening stage. The winners from each group will advance to the quarterfinals while second- and third-place teams advance to the Round of 12.
All matches are best-of-three until the best-of-five final on April 10. Ninjas in Pyjamas took Group A, going 4-1 in five matches, while FURIA Esports clinched the top spot in Group B. Movistar Riders claimed Group C, finishing 5-0.
The winner of the $823,000 event earns $175,000 and entry to the BLAST World Final 2022. That team will also garner 1,300 Pro Tour points.
Group D action continues Saturday with three matches:
–Heroic vs. AGO
–Complexity Gaming vs. Evil Geniuses
–Astralis vs. Natus Vincere
ESL Pro League Season 15 Group D standings, with win-loss record and point differential:
T1. Natus Vincere, 3-0, +43
T1. Heroic, 3-0, +25
3. Astralis, 2-1, +23
4. AGO, 1-2, -24
T5. Complexity Gaming, 0-3, -18
T5. Evil Geniuses, 0-3, -49
–Field Level Media