The preview of ESL Pro League Season 11

The general information

ESL Pro League Season 11 starts in the island country, Malta on March 16. The exact venue is still unknown. At the moment, we know that the matches of the group stage will be carried out there. The top six will go to Denver, the USA to fight in matches of the final stage, which will be held at 1STBANK Center. All matches, except for the grand final, will be hosted in a bo3 format. The final battle will be carried out in a bo5 series. The overall prize pool of the championship will amount $750,000.

The format of ESL Pro League Season 11

To predict how teams will perform at the upcoming competition, we will remind you about the format of ELP #11, not the easiest one, which we have ever met. The top three teams will advance to the final stage from every six on the outcome of all matches. The teams to place 2nd-3rd will go to Round of 12. The teams to hold the top of every group will proceed to Play-In where semi-final and quarterfinal slots will be up for grabs. The Play-In winners will go to the semi-final, while the teams, which have lost in Play-In, will start their way from the quarterfinals.

The analysis of groups

Group A

In Group A, four participants in the face of Vitality, ENCE, GODSENT, and NiP have almost a similar gaming level at the moment. If we pay attention to the HLTV rating, the confidence will be even higher. Only Astralis are brightly different compared to them, they place 2nd on the list of the best CS:GO teams in the world and Sharks Esports is brightly different, which holds the 127th place on the same list. We are confident to assume that due to the recent changes, there might emerge issues on the roster of Vitality. The change of the captain has never improved the performance of the team in a short term perspective. However, it is not worth to forget that ZyWoo, the esportsman who was considered to be the best CS:GO player of 2019, plays in the tanks of Vitality. NiP, in turn, has good chances to proceed to the playoffs against these events and the recent matches with the participation of the Swedish team showed that NiP is in a good gaming shape now. Regarding ENCE and GODSENT, it is pretty difficult to make some conclusions because both teams do not differ with some kind of stability in their performance. Due to GODSENT were playing better than the Finns in the last matches and ENCE have a series of five lost matches, we will prefer the Swedes more. There are not so many things to say about Sharks Esports because this Brazilian roster is the main outsider of Group A, which places 127th on the list of the best CS:GO teams in the world.

Our conclusion about Group A:

• Astralis will proceed to Play-In
• Vitality should advance to the playoffs
• NiP and GODSENT will be fighting for the 3rd place in Group A and, respectively, will fight for advancement to the playoffs.
• ENCE and Sharks Esports are the outsiders of the group

Group B

Everything is a bit easier in Group B than in Group A. Here, we are sure that NAVI will hold the first place and Fnatic will place 2nd-3rd. Now, Natus Vincere are in the top shape and together with Perfecto, they are ready to make miracles. Fnatic, in turn, are also in a good gaming shape. They, by the way, were the only team, which was able to beat NAVI at the recent IEM Katowice 2020 and it means that the Swedes might place the top of Group B. Despite this, we are more confident about Natus Vincere’s power, however, they can disappoint us, as a result. Regarding the rest of the participants, we tend more to the fact that FURIA will become the third participant of the playoffs from Group B. They were playing very well in the last matches and beat not the weakest opponents. Unlike them, forZe were playing with weaker opponents and also place 22nd on the list of the best CS:GO teams, while FURIA hold the 11th place. All of this makes forZe a less obvious contender to advance to the final stage. We prefer not to talk about Heroic because, first of all, roster changes have recently happened there and, secondly, according to the rumors, FunPlus Phoenix want to buy Heroic and send them to FLASHPOINT Season 1. Speaking about roster rotations, we will notice that the situation is similar to the one in Group A, namely, in Team Vitality. When a captain leaves a team, a team is unlikely to start playing on a good level. Considering that the Danes’ results have left much more to be desired, there are no doubts about their loss. Complexity, which holds the 16th place in the rate by HLTV, have been playing with an unstable success recently but, in our view, they have low chances to proceed to the playoffs. There are some but they are not as good as the players from Complexity would like them to be.

Our conclusion about Group B:

• NAVI and Fnatic will definitely make it to the playoffs. Natus Vincere will probably advance to Play-In and Fnatic will hold the 2nd place in the group.
• FURIA look like one of the favorites to place 3rd in Group B
• Heroic is the main outsider of the group. They will achieve nothing with roster changes
• forZe and Complexity Gaming are unlikely to surprise us.

Group C

Things are way easier in Group C than in the first two sixes. We can see the obviously dominating mousesports and Team Liquid. Both teams recommended themselves in the previous year as one of the stable representatives of the professional CS:GO scene and had a row of victories at different times. They, by the way, performed not in the best way at the recently finished IEM Katowice 2020 but this is not a reason to think about mouz and Liquid in a bad way. The above-mentioned participants should struggle well to hold the first place and, respectively, for advancement to Play-In but we think that as a result, mousesports will win the race for the first place in their six. 100 Thieves, who will probably make it to the playoffs, can also be related to three contenders to proceed to the final stage. Virtus.pro might struggle for the third place too but VP were showing disappointing results at all last tournaments, so we have doubts about their success. We do not even look at BOOM Esports and Renegades. These teams have been playing badly recently and we see no reason why they will surprise us. It is possible that BOOM and Renegades will naturally place 5th-6th in Group C.

Our conclusion about Group C:

• mousesports is the main favorite to proceed to Play-In. Team Liquid can create strong competition for them but they will probably place 2nd in Group C.
• We see 100 Thieves as the main contender in the 3rd place. Basically, Virtus.pro might fight for it too but the practice does not match the theory more and more frequently.
• BOOM Esports and Renegades are the main outsiders of the group. There are no chances for them

Group D

At Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2020, G2 made a big and hard path to the final and held the 2nd place at the tournament. We think that they are in a good moral state, despite the loss, so they will have to perform very well at the championship. We can’t call the French to be the main favorites to proceed to Play-In from Group D but we think that it will be a great crime by G2 if they do not make it to the playoffs. Together with this, we want to assume against the public opinion that OG will be able to surprise us and advance to the playoffs, having placed 3rd. FaZe Clan and Evil Geniuses should fight for the 2nd place well too. The last ones, by the way, have not shown good results for a long time, so we think that their bad streak might come to an end. North and TYLOO are the outsiders of the group.

Our conclusion about Group D:

• G2 will definitely have to advance to the playoffs
• Evil Geniuses are not in the best shape, so might not proceed to the final stage
• FaZe Clan is one of the favorites of the group
• OG is a dark horse
• North and TYLOO are the outsiders.