NIP and Liquid lose on opening day of ESL Pro League

NIP can’t be serious, man.

This is a big shot for them here at Pro League and they’ve started off with another slapstick game against Legacy, where they fought for two hours to go to a decider just to get one T side round in the first half.

xKacpersky continues to be a bright spot for this team and if results continue this way, he’ll have suitors that are much, much better, and we’re pretty sure he won’t want to stay here for much longer.

We wouldn’t.

Maybe we’re being harsh - latto was in sparkling form on the final map, and what can you do when arT is feeling it?

Just don’t ask how a top 30 team let arT be ‘feeling it’, and it almost makes sense.

Passion UA won their first game with Senzu in the roster, and any worries that his English might hinder him from performing early on in this squad have been quickly quashed, with the Mongolian being the clear standout in a marathon Nuke map.

He dropped 34 in 34 rounds to drag Passion UA over the line against Liquid, after a pretty simple win on Dust 2. EliGE had an absolute stinker on Dust 2, but recovered to be a big contributor in map two, a large reason it was much closer.

We still, like most people with working eyes, have massive concerns over Team Liquid that can’t really be solved overnight, and at this point we’re wondering if they’re just cursed. Very good players just turn to also-rans on this team, no matter what version of the roster they’re on. It simply makes no sense.

Our excitement for Passion UA might be hitting a critical mass, though.

Astralis beat Monte in a 2-1 where every game was a complete walkover, which left us with more questions than answers. We think Astralis might be pretty solid, but that Dust 2 scared us. There were some absolutely ridiculous rounds in this one, not least the final round of the series, but Gizmy missing a free kill on a guy not looking at him wasn’t great either.

A poor game.

FUT smacked M80 on back-to-back maps after dropping the ball on the first, which was a little less worrying than Astralis’ performance because they were a bit better on map one, and M80 actually looked half-decent. There was nothing untoward in that game, just dominance from FUT, especially on their Mirage. Their Mirage record is absolutely bonkers.

Grim’s debut for NRG didn’t go to plan, as they were beaten easily by HEROIC in two. HEROIC still don’t have their full roster, but we will give NRG a bit of a grace period because it’s literally their first game with the roster.

Not ideal, though.

G2 were relatively unchallenged against Gaimin Gladiators, though it was looking a little hairy on Inferno for a bit, and PARIVISION somehow let Semper Fi get 11 on Dust 2 before bothering to show up.

Typical Jame.

paiN and 3DMAX thought it was funny to drag out the final game of the day to ruin this already dangerously underslept writer’s bedtime, with paiN just about closing out Inferno in overtime. They lost a 3v1 at match point just to extend the suffering.