ELEAGUE 2017 playoffs preview
The ELEAGUE 2017 has reached its own stage of playoffs, and we will soon be able to move directly to the semi-finals next week and see the big final milestones.
Eight teams are set to battle in the ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier playoffs this week, with the quarter-finals starting on Tuesday. Before heading into the ELEAGUE studios once again, we took a look at the squads and prepared a preview of the event.
The ELEAGUE group stage, which spanned over four consecutive weeks, saw eight teams book spots in the playoffs. FaZe and G2 came out of the first group, North and fnatic followed suit, Cloud9 and EnVyUs made it out of Group C, while Astralis and Heroic wrapped it up by finishing top two in the final group.
SK and Liquid are notable absentees, having failed to make it out of group D, as well asmousesports, who attended ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier shortly after their triumph in Mykonos, only to go out last in Atlanta. NiP are another team many would expect to make it to the playoffs, but the Swedes were shocked by EnVyUs in the decider match after winning the Frenchmen’s map pick.
The draw saw the four favorites—Astralis, FaZe, G2 and North—spread out evenly across the bracket, with Richard “shox” Papillon and co.—who finished second in their group behind FaZe—being drawn against Cloud9. The French-American matchup will be the first one to be played out at the ELEAGUE Arena, with Astralis – fnatic following on the first day. The other two quarter-finals will take place on day two, when FaZe will take on EnVyUs and North will face Heroic in a Danish derby.
Group C proved to be a walk in a park for Cloud9, who dropped just eight rounds total against NiP and EnVyUs on their way to the ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier playoffs. The American side have been active ever since putting together their new roster, attending four LANs since the summer break.
They are set to face G2. The French side wasn’t too active after winning Malmö, with the ELEAGUE group stage their only LAN outing, so it remains to be seen if the level they showed in Sweden is something they can keep up with.
While two BO1 victories saw Astralis qualify for the playoffs, fnatic had a bit longer road to get to the same point. The Swedes started out with a 16-14 loss to North, so they had to edge out mousesports before 2-0’ing Immortals to move past the group stage. flusha was the main man during the matches in Atlanta, even though Lekr0 and KRIMZ had been the duo pushing this fnatic squad forward up until that point.
The third quarter-final sees FaZe, the team with unquestionably the best short-term form, face off against EnVyUs, who had dire LAN form after the Summer break but finally caught a break in the ELEAGUE group stage.
FaZe are, of course, the overwhelming favorites in the matchup, with their win at ESL One New York being a sheer display of the power this roster possesses. The ‘superteam’ surely lived up to the name in the Big Apple as they let their opponents get to double digits on just one out of the seven maps they played.
Closing the quarter-final stage of ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier will be a Danish derby between teams lead by MSL and Snappi. The North – Heroic rivalry has grown over the last year, ever since Snappi’s side exploded in the scene with a win at the Danish-only Power-LAN 2016. North have been able to hold on to the title of the second best Danish team, though, even taking over the number one spot from time to time.
ELEAGUE 2017 features a total prize pool of $1,000,000, with $500,000 set aside for the winner and $150,000 for the second-placed team.
