We're just one week away from the start of the long-awaited playoffs in Malta. All we have to do is evaluate the first spring performances of three teams from the CIS and watch the debut of NertZ as part of ENCE. It's a good time to recap how the third group of eight teams decided the fate of the slots for the next round of the ESL Pro League 17. Spoiler alert: we're in for another statistical surprise.
Read more about how the Brazilians ran wild and how Vitality surprised us in the Telecomasia.net article.
Group C Players Rating on ACM3
ZywOo is third on the list of record breakers
But there's a catch. During the playoffs, the averages are likely to change for the worse. If we take the situation as it is, the Frenchman has the best chance to become the first player with a rating of 2.00+ for the tournament, according to the ACM3 formula, until s1mple shows up. A fortnight ago, experts and spectators worshipped sh1ro, but ZywOo managed to stay just above the Russian at a similar level of competition. Speaking about the top teams, Cloud9 beat G2 and Outsiders, while Vitality beat OG and FaZe.
We should compare the two heroes of the group stage (aside from frozen) because they are both snipers, and the big numbers reveal their styles differently. While the Russian has a high K/D (2.28) and AMS sniper efficiency (0.66), ZywOo excels in passive metrics such as ADR and KAST%. The situation is interesting because high ADR (average damage) and KAST% (useful rounds) are mostly for the rifflers, not the snipers. Detailed statistics also show that the Frenchman doesn't often kill with AWP. In conclusion, the duel between sh1ro and ZywOo in the playoffs will be between a pure sniper and a versatile sniper. This makes it all the more exciting to count down the days until the playoffs of the biggest tournament in March.
Brazilian scene wakes up
Last season, the appearance of teams such as 00NATION, GODSENT, or MIBR in major tournaments attracted the community's attention. The days of Luminosity/SK's "golden roster" are long gone, and the core of these teams now consists of young and little-known players. However, their tournament ambitions and the level of their performances remain the same. Note that for the first time in ESL Pro League 17, the top half of the ranking is taken by the players who made it to the playoffs. Almost a quarter of the top 20 are Brazilians from paiN and 00NATION.
The new faces at the top level deserve special attention - we're talking about skullz, biguzera and dumau. Skullz was the best permanent entry-fragger (except for JACKZ as a stand-in) in Group D. There are no huge numbers in the stats. Still, the Brazilian managed to hold the middle ground against OG and Ninjas in Pyjamas, a challenge few can overcome. Biguzera is the absolute leader of this group and fifth in the tournament by the percentage of rounds with kills (an additional riffler metric for ACM3).
Speaking of 00NATION, it's not just dumau who should be praised: the region's veteran coldzera also showed a decent performance in the ACM3 "green" area (1.44). For Marcelo David, the Malta tournament is his first top-level competition after Cologne 2022. Unlike his former teammates in SK, coldzera will not retire, and his experience as a renowned captain is only good for 00NATION. Notably, Marcelo David is also the first in-game leader in ESL Pro League 17 to outscore all of his teammates on ACM3.
Vitality passes the stress test
Dupreeh's temporary inactivity could have made this tournament bog standard for Vitality (as it was for OG) were it not for Zonic's habit of building a chaotic system. This time, JACKZ was part of the chaos, and the Danish coach's system was to move the stand-in to the role of entry-fragger. Had this been revealed before the tournament, there would have been a conflict. For example, there's the obvious fact that the Frenchman has played his entire career in the passive style.
But JACKZ's performance played a decisive role in the team's first place finish. Besides, Vitality's core players didn't have a problem with Zonic's decision. While Spinx is cemented in a supporting role, Magisk has already played more than one tournament as a semi-passive riffler-playmaker. JACKZ has found a perfect place in this mechanism and has shown his true potential. Currently, the Frenchman leads the special metric for entry fraggers, a few hundredths ahead of stavn of Group B (0.51 vs. 0.46).
Obviously, no one at Vitality is seriously considering replacing dupreeh after this tournament. The important thing is that JACKZ can now be considered as a top player again, but not only as a natural support. The Frenchman has already been released from his "permanent residence" in HEET.
Ninjas in Pyjamas: disappointment
OG could have become one, too, if not for the situation with the stand-in (niko replaced nexa, who was benched). Ninjas came out of the turbulence only after Katowice, and the "best roster" (according to Aleksib) had to show its 100% in Malta. In fact, we saw only a couple of interesting strategic decisions that had no effect on the final results: this stagnation is alarming.
Traditionally, the main issue is headtr1ck, just like after the event in Poland. After three months with the team, Daniil still has not reached his peak form. In February, we could have said, "we need to give them time", but now, after Ninjas' exit from a weaker group, we should ask if it's wise of them to leave things as they are. Headtr1ck's K/D for one week of play was slightly lower than in Katowice (1.16 now vs. 1.19 then).
The bright spot in this story is k0nfig's integration into his usual entry-fragger role. While summarizing the results, we noticed that the Dane was merely used to fill the support slot in Poland, and he still needs to show his full potential. The only problem was that Ninjas in Pyjamas already had a consistent attacking forward - Brollan, who rarely failed in 2022. DjL's solution was to move the young Swede to a support position and limit his activity. This opens up two perspectives: k0nfig shows the strongest entry stats of the team since the summer of 2022 in his comfortable play style, and Brollan can easily grow into the equivalent of ropz or KSCERATO with his skill set. The only concern is that another global "renovation" of the system will take time.
| 1st place (1/4 playoffs) | Vitality |
| 2nd place (2nd playoff round) | FaZe |
| 3rd place (1st playoff round) | paiN |
| 4th place (1st playoff round) | 00NATION |
| 5th place | Ninjas in Pyjamas |
| 6th-7th place | Grayhound |
| 6th-7th place | OG |
| 8th place | Rooster |
Group D matches will start on March 15. Right on the opening day, we will see the second CIS derby of the tournament (FORZE vs. Natus Vincere), as well as the sniper duel between w0nderful (Spirit) and device (Astralis). The final playoff line-up will be announced on Monday, March 20.
