ESL Pro League S6 Finals preview

The six best-placed teams from both North America and Europe are set to battle for $750,000 at the ESL Pro League Season 6 Finals, which will take place from December 5-10 at Arena Fyn in Odense, Denmark.

Using the format seen at various ESL events in the past—with IEM Oakland being the most recent one—, the teams will be split into two groups, which will be played out using a BO1 round-robin system. In the group stage, wins in regulation will be rewarded with three points, while overtime wins will result in only two points, with one point going to the team that loses out in the added rounds. In the end, the three best-ranked teams from each group will advance to the playoffs, with the first placed team going directly to the semi-finals.

Arena Fyn will host the ESL Pro League Season 6 Finals

The group stage will be played behind closed doors on the first two days, with a day off following on Thursday. On Friday, bracket play will commence, and, unlike in Oakland, all of the playoff matches will be held on the main stage.

The two groups, which were decided by ESL's new group stage drafting system, look like this:

Group A	Group B
fnatic	OpTic
FaZe	SK
Astralis	North
Liquid	Ninjas in Pyjamas
HellRaisers	Misfits
Luminosity	NRG

The ESL Pro League Season 6 Finals will feature an interesting combination of teams, including elite sides like FaZe and SK, middle-of-the-pack squads such as fnatic and OpTic, as well as some teams lingering in the bottom part of the top 30, such as NRG and Luminosity.

Group A

FaZe (#2) (EGB Rate: 2.35)	Age	Rating
Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač	20	1.28
Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard	23	1.24
Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács	26	1.22
Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer	25	1.11
Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen	27	1.00
Robert "⁠RobbaN⁠" Dahlström (coach)

Offline placings in the last three months
3rd	BLAST Pro Series
2nd	IEM Oakland
5th-6th	EPICENTER
1st-2nd	EPICENTER Wild Card Qualifier
1st	ELEAGUE Premier
1st	ESL One New York
9th-12th	DreamHack Masters Malmö

After their two stunning tournament wins at the start of this rosters' lifecycle, FaZe have slowed down a bit. EPICENTER was this squad's lowest point, as the lack of impact from rain was felt immensely, but it was shown to be a one-off thing as the Norwegian quickly pulled it back together at IEM Oakland.

The tournament in North America was disappointing from another perspective, and that is the failure to pick up the title despite avoiding SK, who seems to be their kryptonite at the moment. FaZe didn't seem too shaken by the grand final loss to Ninjas in Pyjamas, and had a decent showing at BLAST Pro Series, where they finished third in the end as a 15-15 tie with Ninjas in Pyjamas in the opening game and 16-14 and 16-13 losses to the two Danish teams left them without a chance to battle for the title in the grand final.

karrigan's squad is hungry for more titles

In Odense, FaZe look good to make another deep playoff run at a minimum. The group, in which the highest ranked team is an Astralis side that will once again using a stand-in, should be theirs for the taking, with a potential first-place finish placing them straight in the semi-final. That is where we will see karrigan's troops truly tested as there is a strong chance they could face either SK or Ninjas in Pyjamas, both of whom they have a score to settle with.

Astralis (#3) (EGB Rate: 11.5)	Age	Rating
Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen	24	1.09
Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth	22	1.07
Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye	19	1.04
Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander	22	0.97
Ruben "⁠RUBINO⁠" Villarroel (stand-in)	23	1.00
Danny "⁠zonic⁠" Sørensen (coach)

Offline placings in the last three months
2nd	BLAST Pro Series
7th-8th	IEM Oakland
4th	EPICENTER
2nd	ELEAGUE Premier
5th-6th	ESL One New York
5th-8th	DreamHack Masters Malmö

Astralis had a strong showing at the first event they played without Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz. With Dennis "⁠dennis⁠" Edman as a stand-in at BLAST Pro Series, the title was all but in their hands, but SK denied them in the end, leaving Astralis to settle with a second-place finish.

Loosening up your playstyle is something that comes naturally when using a stand-in, and with dennis, who shines in that kind of an environment, on the team surely helped Astralis. The Swede finished the event averaging a 1.17 rating over the eight maps played, but, unfortunately for gla1ve and co., he won't be able to play for Astralis at the ESL Pro League Finals or at the following ECS Season 4 Finals.

Fitting into dennis' shoes won't be a simple task for RUBINO

Coming in for Astralis is RUBINO, a quite different player to dennis. The Norwegian was at his best in Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen's Dignitas, a tactical team in which he was a supportive player, but one still capable of carry-like performances from time to time. On Astralis, it is expected that RUBINO will take over dennis' positions, while dupreeh will remain as the main AWPer for the team.

It seems unlikely that Astralis will be able to repeat their success from BLAST, not only because RUBINO is an individually less skilled player than dennis, but also because other teams will make it harder for them as they have surely taken notice of dupreeh's AWPing style as well as Astralis' map pool. In Copenhagen, the Danes picked up the majority of their wins on two maps, Inferno and Overpass, which will surely be early bans for other teams at the ESL Pro League Finals.

Considering their group features the likes of Luminosity, HellRaisers and a Liquid team field Wilton "⁠zews⁠" Prado, their goal of reaching the playoffs isn't that far-fetched, but they can't be considered a serious contender for the Pro League title.

Liquid (#10) (EGB Rate: 27.3)	Age	Rating
Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken	18	1.18
Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski	20	1.16
Josh "⁠jdm64⁠" Marzano	27	1.01
Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella	22	0.93
Wilton "⁠zews⁠" Prado (coach/stand-in)	30	N/A

Offline placings in the last three months
11th-12th	IEM Oakland (4/5 of the lineup)
3rd-4th	iBUYPOWER Masters (4/5 of the lineup)
1st	Americas Minor - ELEAGUE Major (4/5 of the lineup)
7-8th	EPICENTER (4/5 of the current lineup)
1st-2nd	EPICENTER Wild Card Qualifier (4/5 of the lineup)
13th-16th	ELEAGUE Premier (4/5 of the lineup)
2nd	ESL One New York(4/5 of the lineup)
2nd	ESG Tour Mykonos (4/5 of the lineup)

Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz's departure and Lucas "⁠steel⁠" Lopes's inability to play for the team at the ESL Pro League Finals mean that Liquid are the second team in Group A that will be using a stand-in at the event. The North American squad will be playing with their coach, zews, which will surely impact their firepower and most likely harm their CT sides, while the T side, especially if the EliGE - Twistzz combo is able to get work done, shouldn't be affected that much.

With an incomplete roster, and steel lined up to play at the upcoming ECS Season 4 Finals, one wouldn't think that Liquid will be trying too hard to make this squad work, and they will likely just plug zews into roles stanislaw used to have and hope for the best.

Liquid's group, which features a big underdog in Luminosity and a HellRaisers squad that hasn't played a LAN of this caliber yet, give Liquid a chance to make the playoffs, but with zews playing and with nitr0 and jdm64 struggling to get big numbers in recent times, they will have a hard time to match the output of many teams at the event.

fnatic (#12) (EGB Rate: 12.8)	Age	Rating
Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist	24	1.17
Jonas "⁠Lekr0⁠" Olofsson	24	1.07
Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell	22	1.03
Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson	23	1.03
Maikil "⁠Golden⁠" Selim	23	0.97
Jimmy "⁠Jumpy⁠" Berndtsson (coach)

Offline placings in the last three months
4th	WESG 2017 EU & CIS Regional Finals (4/5 of the lineup)
5-8th	ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier

Under the leadership of Golden, fnatic have shown up reinvigorated in their recent online games, earning first-place finishes in the regular seasons in both EPL and ECS. At the same time, we haven't witnessed them replicate that on LAN yet, also because they have not had that many chances yet. The recent online success came after a quarter-final run at ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier, and their most recent LAN, the WESG 2017 EU & CIS Regional Finals, was played without KRIMZ and with a quite different player stepping in—15-year-old Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin.

ESL Pro League Finals will be a big test for Golden

The event in Odense will be a true test for the team, who have been spearheaded by Lekr0 and JW online, with the group stage draw looking pretty good for them. If going back to playing with KRIMZ instead of Brollan doesn't end up being too problematic, fnatic should be able to make it past the group stage at the ESL Pro League Finals.

Playoffs are a different beast, however. JW, flusha and KRIMZ surely won't get overwhelmed by playing on stage, but Golden doesn't have the same level of experience. If the pressure of a big match gets to him and his calling is affected by it, fnatic's chances in the second part of the tournament will be considerably diminished.

HellRaisers (#22) (EGB Rate: 16.4)	Age	Rating
Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker	19	1.53
Kirill "⁠ANGE1⁠" Karasiow	28	1.25
Issa "⁠ISSAA⁠" Murad	20	1.22
Kristjan "⁠fejtZ⁠" Allsaar	20	1.07
Bence "⁠DeadFox⁠" Böröcz	22	0.98
Ivan "⁠Johnta⁠" Shevtsov (coach)

Offline placings in the last three months
1st	FCDB Cup 2017
3rd	SL i-League Invitational Shanghai 2017 (4/5 of the lineup)

HellRaisers are the surprise package of the European portion of ESL Pro League, finishing above the likes of G2, MOUZ and Envy to grab a spot at the LAN finals. The team led by ANGE1 went through a lot of roster changes after the Summer, with only team captain ANGE1 and DeadFox remaining from the team that played at the ELEAGUE Major at the beginning of 2017.

Alongside ANGE1, woxic and ISSAA have been big fraggers for the team, with the Turkish AWPer farming rating on the team's last LAN event, FCDB Cup 2017. That was also woxic's first LAN with the team, after he had failed to make his debut at SL i-League Invitational Shanghai and DreamHack Open Denver due to visa issues.

2017 has been a rough year for what looked like a promising HellRaisers squad

In the end, woxic is the biggest question mark of this team: the 19-year-old has only attended three smaller LANs and the WESG 2016 World Finals in his career, and even though he boasts a 1.25 average offline rating, he still has to prove himself at an event of this calibre.

If they are able to have their main players perform and bring their strong form to Odense, HellRaisers could be able to make it past the groups and finish on the year on a high note, which would be a sweet ending to an overall pretty bitter year.

Luminosity (#25) (EGB Rate: 27.3)	Age	Rating
Gustavo "⁠yel⁠" Knittel	25	1.04
Gustavo "⁠SHOOWTiME⁠" Gonçalves	20	1.04
Vinicios "⁠PKL⁠" Coelho	23	0.93
Marcelo "⁠chelo⁠" Cespedes	19	0.90
Gabriel "⁠NEKIZ⁠" Schenato	22	0.89
Alessandro "Apoka" Marcucci(coach)

Offline placings in the last three months
7th-8th	iBUYPOWER Masters 2017
5-6th	Americas Minor - ELEAGUE Major 2018
5-6th	DreamHack Open Montreal

Despite the Brazilians making both ESL Pro League Season 6 Finals and the ECS Season 4 Finals, no one is expecting much from Luminosity at this week's event. The main reason is their offline track record, with group stage exits from at their last three events: DreamHack Open Montreal, the Americas Minor and iBUYPOWER Masters. The team's only offline wins in the last three months came against Complexity and Rise Nation, so it's hard to make a case for Luminosity in a group featuring the likes of FaZe and fnatic.

yel, the team's AWPer, has remained the main fragging force of the side, with SHOOWTiME adding a bit as well, but if chelo and NEKIZ do not step up considerably, Luminosity are going to get blown out of the water in Denmark.

Group B

SK (#1) (EGB Rate: 4.29)	Age	Rating
Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David	23	1.24
Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo	26	1.16
Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga	26	1.15
Ricardo "⁠boltz⁠" Prass	20	1.14
Epitacio "⁠TACO⁠" de Melo	22	0.90

Offline placings in the last three months
1st	BLAST Pro Series
3rd-4th	IEM Oakland
1st	EPICENTER
9th-12th	ELEAGUE Premier (4/5 of the lineup)
3rd-4th	ESL One New York (4/5 of the lineup)
3rd	ESG Tour Mykonos (4/5 of the lineup)
5th-8th	DreamHack Masters Malmö (4/5 of the lineup)

SK have had a couple of great events since adding boltz, winning EPICENTER and BLAST Pro Series, and finishing 3rd-4th at IEM Oakland, where they lost to the eventual champions, Ninjas in Pyjamas. The honeymoon period is something that can't be forgotten when talking about their recent results, and the ESL Pro League Finals are where that period is likely to come to an end.

With SK having three events with boltz behind them, opposing teams will be getting more and more used to the squad, which relies more on FalleN than it did in the João "⁠felps⁠" Vasconcellos era. That shift in the team saw the 26-year-old sniper net the BLAST Pro Series MVP title due to his immense impact, while the ever-criticized TACO was also able to step up a bit from his IEM Oakland level—enough for his team to nab the title from Astralis in Copenhagen.

Not only are SK the best-ranked team, they also have a great record against the second-best one: FaZe

Thinking of SK as anything besides one of the favorites would be foolish, especially as out of the top teams, the one they have historically struggled the most against is G2—who didn't make it to Odense. The highest ranked team at the event after SK is FaZe, who still have not picked up a series win against Brazilians, while Astralis shouldn't be as dangerous as they were in Copenhagen without dennis.

With their series play prowess, SK's biggest danger is seemingly dropping the ball in the groups, with a bunch of potentially dangerous BO1s ahead of them. Ninjas in Pyjamas, North, OpTic and even the up-and-coming Misfits can't be taken lightly, as a bad start or complacency later on in the group stage could prove costly for any team in this group.

Ninjas in Pyjamas (#4) (EGB Rate: 7.73)	Age	Rating
Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner	19	1.11
Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg	29	1.09
William "⁠draken⁠" Sundin	22	1.09
Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund	27	1.05
Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström	26	0.90
Björn "⁠THREAT⁠" Pers (coach)

Offline placings in the last three months
6th	BLAST Pro Series
1st	IEM Oakland
9th-12th	ELEAGUE Premier
3rd-4th	DreamHack Masters Malmö

Ninjas in Pyjamas received a cold shower at BLAST Pro Series, going out in last place after lifting the trophy at IEM Oakland. Even though it's hard to take too much away from a very stacked BO1 group stage in Copenhagen, we once again saw Ninjas in Pyjamas go from hot to cold in a very short span of time.

draken was left hanging by his teammates at BLAST

Interestingly, draken was the only member performing well at BLAST, while he had been only the fourth-best rated player of his team in Oakland. One of the reasons the trio of REZ, f0rest and GeT_RiGhT dipped in form might be a brief loss of motivation caused by a big tournament win, and, if that's the case, their level should be back up for the ESL Pro League Finals.

Special attention will be paid to REZ, who has outperformed the veteran duo to bring himself to the spotlight. The youngster will need to be in form once again this week if Ninjas in Pyjamas want to get a good result at their last event of 2017.

North (#7) (EGB Rate: 16.0)	Age	Rating
Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke	20	1.11
Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen	22	1.04
Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså	22	1.03
René "⁠cajunb⁠" Borg	27	1.03
Philip "⁠aizy⁠" Aistrup	21	1.01
Casper "⁠ruggah⁠" Due (coach)

Offline placings in the last three months
4th	BLAST Pro Series
5th-6th	EPICENTER
3rd-4th	ELEAGUE Premier
1st	DreamHack Open Montreal
2nd	DreamHack Masters Malmö

Two draws in the group stage of a tournament that looked tailor-made for North, left MSL's side without a chance to advance to the grand final of BLAST Pro Series and actually fight for the title. In a way, the tournament format, which sees only two teams advance to the playoffs (grand final), robbed us of seeing more from North, who have not been the most active team on LAN in recent months.

MSL is struggling to make the most out of the talent on North

North are still finding their footing with this roster, and are, after the early honeymoon phase passed, struggling to get big results. The lack of a big-name AWPer is apparent, with the big green gun being swapped between two players who seem to find some, but not too much success with it—cajunb and k0nfig. The latter is the star of the team, while the newest addition, valde, isn't adding as much firepower as people were expecting after he had moved on from Heroic. Currently sitting at the bottom of the rating list is aizy, who is now on his second tournament with below-average ratings after some good performances in Montreal and Atlanta.

ESL Pro League on home soil is North's second shot at making a big splash in Denmark. If both this and the upcoming Major don't go well for MSL's squad, it wouldn't be too crazy to expect a roster change, most likely involving the North Academy prodigy, Daniel "⁠mertz⁠" Mertz.

OpTic (#15) (EGB Rate:  27.3)	Age	Rating
Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif	19	1.13
Oscar "⁠mixwell⁠" Cañellas	22	1.13
Aleksi "⁠allu⁠" Jalli	25	1.04
Kevin "⁠HS⁠" Tarn	20	1.00
Adam "⁠friberg⁠" Friberg	26	0.89
Chet "ImAPet" Singh (coach)

Offline placings in the last three months
5th-6th	IEM Oakland
3rd-4th	iBUYPOWER Masters
3rd	Europe Minor - ELEAGUE Major 2018

The end of the year nears and OpTic have a mixed bag of results. Their online form, despite often travels between Europe and North America, has remained impeccable throughout, finishing first in the North American division of ESL Pro League and second in ECS. Offline form, however, has been a different story.

Some hiccups at their debut LAN were to be expected, but the fact that they made their first appearance at a Minor proved costly, as friberg and co. were stopped on the road to the Major by EnVyUs. iBUYPOWER Masters and IEM Oakland followed, but OpTic were not able to make the expected step forward on their Californian tour. Luckily for OpTic, they still have two LAN events before the end of the year to show what they are made of.

At EPL, mixwell will be AWPing over allu

At least one big change will be seen in action at the Pro League Finals, and that is mixwell taking over the main AWP role moving forward, as announced by the team's coach, Chet "ImAPet" Singh. The Spaniard has shown his prowess with the weapon many times in the past but has also made it clear that he is not a fan of being the primary sniper in a team. Will the frustrations come out once again, as they did after IEM Sydney, or will mixwell finally grow into the role? The answer to that question will shape the team, and mixwell, going forward.

Misfits (#23) (EGB Rate: 27.3)	Age	Rating
François "⁠AMANEK⁠" Delaunay	24	1.21
Hunter "⁠SicK⁠" Mims	19	1.08
David "⁠devoduvek⁠" Dobrosavljevic	23	1.08
Shahzeb "⁠ShahZaM⁠" Khan	24	1.02
Sean "⁠seang@res⁠" Gares	29	0.93

Offline placings in the last three months
5th-6th	iBUYPOWER Masters 2017
2nd	Americas Minor - ELEAGUE Major 2018

The French-American mixture of Misfits has shown promise recently, finishing second at the Americas Minor to keep the Major dream alive. At that event, it was 24-year-old AMANEK who combined with the team's youngster SicK to form the power duo of Misfits, with devoduvek joining in on the action as well.

This means that the team's streaky AWPer ShahZaM is no longer key to the squad getting wins, giving seang@res's side much needed stability. At their second LAN outing in the last three months, at iBUYPOWER Masters, Misfits couldn't make it past the groups after throwing away a massive lead in the opener against Liquid, but still showed enough to make them an exciting team to watch in Odense.

seang@res' French-American mixture is starting to click

Playing five maps against top tier opposition at the ESL Pro League Finals will give the team much needed experience, the lack of which cost them derly in some LAN matches in the past. That is most likely what Misfits will have to settle with, because even with their stars in great form, they will struggle to find openings against the likes of SK, Ninjas in Pyjamas and North.

NRG (#28) (EGB Rate: 27.3)	Age	Rating
Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte	19	1.12
Tsvetelin "⁠CeRq⁠" Dimitrov	17	1.08
Jacob "⁠FugLy⁠" Medina	22	0.95
Allan "⁠AnJ⁠" Jensen	23	0.89
Damian "⁠daps⁠" Steele	24	0.79

Offline placings in the last three months
5th-6th	iBUYPOWER Masters
5th-6th	Americas Minor - ELEAGUE Major 2018 (4/5 of the lineup)
7th-8th	DreamHack Open Denver (4/5 of the lineup)

Failures at DreamHack Open Denver and the Americas Minor led NRG to put a stop to the daps as a coach experiment, bringing the Canadian back to the team in the in-game leader role. Comparing the roster and their results somehow doesn't add up, as NRG doesn't look that bad on paper: daps is a low-fragging IGL, but Brehze and CeRq are two big fraggers, and FugLy is a consistent player who can get work done.

One thing is missing, though, and that is AnJ's impact. The 23-year-old Dane came over from Singularity (now Tricked) following their miraculous victoty at Copenhagen Games 2017 victory, where he was the MVP, but still has not found the same level of success overseas. In NRG, AnJ has been utilized as a support player to Brehze and CeRq, something that he is currently struggling to adapt to. NRG's success at the event comes down to him: if coming back to his home country reinvigorates AnJ, NRG could be somewhat dangerous at the event, but otherwise they are unlikely to be a factor in how the group plays out.