ESL Pro League S18: Group B Overview

The 2nd group of the ESL Pro League: Season XVIII is about to start and we will see 8 more teams battle it out for a spot in the playoffs. Out of the 8 teams, 4 teams will qualify to the single-elimination bracket. The winner of each group gets to advance all the way to the quarter-finals securing them a top 8 finish while the runner-up gets to skip a round as the 3rd and 4th place seeds will face off against each other and run through the whole playoff bracket.

Playoff brackets overview. Courtesy: HLTV

Group Participants:

The Group B of ESL Pro League Season 18 will feature the following teams:

  • Heroic (HLTV Ranking #2)

  • BIG (HLTV Ranking #21)

  • Mouz (HLTV Ranking #12)

  • Ence (HLTV Ranking #4)

  • Monte (HLTV Ranking #14)

  • MIBR (HLTV Ranking #45)

  • Evil Geniuses (HLTV Ranking #42)

  • Rooster (HLTV Ranking #104)

The teams would play their 5-day long group as follows:

Group B bracket. Courtesy: Liquipedia

Group B Predictions:

Here are my predictions on how the group stage would end:

1st - ENCE

2nd - Heroic

3rd - Monte

4th - Mouz

5th - BIG

6th-7th - EG

6th-7th - MIBR

8th - Rooster


Teams Overview:

I will go through each team in the group discussing their recent results and their expected performance individually.

Image Courtesy: HLTV

Heroic:

Recent Results:

  • Gamers8: 3rd-4th

  • IEM Cologne: 5th-6th

  • Blast Premier: Fall Groups: 1st-3rd

  • Blast Premier: Spring Finals: 1st

Overview:

The Danish team has been performing well but always end up falling short when it mattered. The team are currently ranked #2 on HLTV and are likely to win against the best teams in the world but sometimes they would lose in the playoffs and have struggled to win trophies. 

Out of their last 16 series, they have only lost 4 matches; Astralis, Mouz and twice to ENCE. Two of these teams that they may have to face in their group stage in order to advance to the playoffs.

Considering how their opening match is against Rooster. The lowest rated team in the group, that should be a game that Heroic should not lose and then face the winner of BIG/Monte in order to secure the spot in the playoffs. The finals of the group is most likely to be Heroic vs ENCE and considering how ENCE has been looking strong lately and have beaten Heroic in their last two encounters. It may seem like Heroic might be destined for another second place finish in this group.

Expected Finish: 2nd

BIG

Recent Results:

  • CCT North Europe Series 7 - 1st

  • CCT East Europe Series #1 - 5th-8th

  • Intel Extreme Masters Sydney 2023: European Open Qualifier - DNQ

  • Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #1 - 2nd

  • IEM Cologne 2023 Play-in - 13th-16th

  • BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023 - 7th-9th

Overview:

BIG has had issues for quite a long time now, making numerous roster changes and sometimes not being able to field their whole roster for events from time to time. The roster failed to qualify for BLAST Fall Finals losing to Team Vitality and dropped out of the IEM Cologne during the play-in stage since they had to field their academy players as they took over the academy team spot. This will be the second time the roster will be playing in a LAN environment with their full roster since the roster changes.

The team is regularly playing in online leagues in order to practice and have had varying results. They failed to qualify for the IEM Sydney Closed qualifiers twice and lost in the quarter finals of the CCT East Europe Series #1. On the other hand they ended up second in the Thunderpick World Championship losing to Mouz and winning the CCT North Europe Series #7 against Monte. 

Their opening group match is against Monte and despite them actually beating Monte a while ago but in an online match instead of a studio environment. Their recent results has been pretty inconsistent and this is going to be their second ever offline event as a full team, I do not believe that they will make it out of the group stage and may fall short at the final hurdle

Expected Finish: 5th

Mouz

Recent Results:

  • Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #1 - 1st

  • Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2023 - 9th-12th

Overview:

Mouz have been pretty stagnant in the past few months. They have recently made 2 changes; bringing back siuhy and promoting Jimpphat from their academy team. They have only played 2 events since the changes. They won the Thunderpick World Championship over BIG and qualified for IEM Cologne via the play-in stage but were knocked out in the group stage.

Their opening match-up is against MIBR and considering the talent that mouz possesses this should be an easy match for them. I do expect them to qualify from the group stage but barely as there is not enough data or results to base the team off and they may struggle against an evenly matched team.

Expected Finish: 4th

Can ENCE keep the streak up and make another grand finals? Image Courtesy: HLTV

ENCE

Recent Results

  • Gamers8 2023 - 2nd

  • Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2023 - 2nd

  • ESL Challenger Katowice 2023 - 2nd

  • Intel Extreme Masters Dallas 2023 - 1st

Overview:

ENCE are becoming one of the top contenders in the counter-strike scene after being a dark horse for a long time. The team suddenly started to climb the top without any top players and people did not take them seriously but they have made it work and showed that they are one of the top teams that everyone should pay attention to.

Their recent results had been spectacular as they had found their way into the grand finals for all 4 events they played since the Paris Major. They have not been able to beat the top teams in the finals though as they only won IEM Dallas against Mouz.

Despite Heroic being ranked better than them in their group, I truly believe that ENCE may be able to top their group easily as they have already beaten Heroic in their last 2 matches and might be able to repeat history again.

Expected Finish: 1st

Evil Geniuses

Recent Results

  • Thunderpick World Championship 2023: North American Series #2 - 3rd-4th

  • Intel Extreme Masters Sydney 2023: North American Open Qualifier #1 & 2 - 2nd

  • CCT North Europe Series #6 - 3rd-4th

  • BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023 - 10th-12th

Overview:

The North American organization had been under fire for quite some time as they have been struggling to provide the results that are expected from the org. They have been making numerous changes and have recently promoted the whole academy roster to take over the main roster status.

Their recent results looks good on paper but considering how most of these tournaments were online and against much weaker opposition doesn’t mean that the team are what people would consider a tier 1 team. Their last event against the top teams was the Fall Group stage of Blast Premier where they failed to win a single game. Their partnership status in ESL Pro League has been under scrutiny as well as their results in the league has been abysmal, they have been dead last in the last 4 out of the 5 seasons of ESL Pro League.

Luckily for them there are a couple of more teams that are also expected to not do well and they might be able to get away with a win against them and not end up last in their group stage.

Expected Finish: 6th-7th

MIBR

Recent Results

  • Gamers8 2023 - 9th-16th

  • CCT Online Finals #2 - 5th-6th

  • CCT North Europe Series #6 - 5th-8th

Overview:

Made in Brazil (MIBR) are coming in as an unknown entity, they have recently made some changes as part of the Brazilian shuffle, acquiring saffee and drop from Furia to replace Hen1 and Tuurtle.

The team had decent results in the online tournaments however, they ended up in last place in Gamers8 following a loss to Gamers8. The team has qualified for EPL by winning the ESL Challenger League and would be facing off against Mouz, a match which could go either way as both teams are new and are trying to find their footing.

Despite that, I do not believe that the team would be making much success and may just end up exiting the group stage early.

Expected Finish: 6th-7th

Monte

Recent Results

  • CCT North Europe Series #7 - 2nd

  • Pinnacle Cup V - 3rd - 4th

  • CCT East Europe Series #1 - 3rd - 4th

  • CCT Central Europe Series #7 - 3rd - 4th

  • Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #1 - 5th - 8th

  • Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2023 - 9th - 12th

Overview:

Monte have been an up and coming team and are grinding the lower leagues for quite some time now. They have been playing in online tournaments and multiple qualifiers all the time and surprised many people as they made the top 8 of the last major. Their most recent LAN even was IEM Cologne where they ended 9th-12th after making it all the way from the play-in stage to the group stage but lost to Heroic and Cloud9 to be eliminated from the event.

They were able to qualify for EPL via the European ESL Challenger League and the team would be looking forward to making it to the playoffs. I ranked them as the 3rd most likely team to make it to the playoffs as they may be able to beat BIG in their opening game and can pull off an upset against Mouz as they have more practice and team chemistry built up from all the tournaments they’re playing almost daily.

Expected Finish: 3rd

Rooster

Recent Results

  • Intel Extreme Masters Sydney 2023: Oceanic Qualifier - 3rd

  • ESL Pro League Season 18: Oceanic Qualifier - 1st

  • ESL ANZ Champs Season 16 - 3rd - 4th

  • ESEA Cash Cup: Oceania - Spring 2023 #6 - 1st

  • ESEA Cash Cup: Oceania - Spring 2023 #5 - 1st

  • ESEA Cash Cup: Oceania - Spring 2023 #4 - 1st

  • Intel Extreme Masters Dallas 2023: Oceanic Qualifier - 3rd

Overview:

Rooster are the 2nd Oceanic team attending the ESL Pro League, the team had qualified via the Oceanic Qualifier and would be hoping to make an impact to help in the OCE scene. The team did not have a good showing in the last ESL Pro League where they finished last place and it was their last international event they had attended as well.

There aren’t much expectations from the team as they are the lowest HLTV rated team in the entire event and have to face Heroic in their opening match. They have had good results but, only in the Oceanic region and still do not manage to make it to many international events. For them, it is a great way to receive exposure and practice against some of the best teams during their time here at EPL.

Expected Finish: 8th

Hashir "HasH" Anis

Long-time esports follower and have worked for esports organizations such as Blight Gaming and Natus Vincere (NaVi). I also help in organizing monthly Dota 2 tournaments hosted by the Dota 2 sub-reddit, partnering with multiple organizations such as ESL, Team Secret and Alliance. You can follow me on Twitter.

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