Team Spirit and MOUZ stroll into playoffs - ESL Pro League S23

Team Spirit and MOUZ rolled into playoffs with consummate ease, and look set to duke it out for the trophy.

Spirit were challenged but ultimately comfortable against G2, who continue to be a threat without being truly elite, though that's better than they had threatened to become not long ago. donk was (yes we know we don't have to tell you this) extraterrestially good on map one, though (and this one is worth talking about) he was much quieter on Anubis as sh1ro took over, including a pretty absurd five-seven 3k.

It's a pretty ridiculous duo to have, really.

Encouragingly for G2, SunPayus' resurgence continued even in the loss, but less encouraging was the performance of malbsMd, who struggled throughout albeit in some very tough positions.

MOUZ absolutely tonked The MongolZ on map one before being pushed to round 24 on Overpass - but ultimately, the result was the same.

Spinx and torzsi combined for 63 kills and just 33 deaths, which tells a pretty story for MOUZ fans. Everything clicked, they won an easy game and a tough one. Solid. The MongolZ will drop down to play 3DMAX (more on them later) and G2 will play Aurora.

FaZe survived elimination with a close 2-0 to break Monte’s hearts and send them home from stage two.

There was still little to get excited about, but at least FaZe avoided the 3-0 and their stars rocked up when they needed them. It’s a start. karrigan won a big clutch, frozen topfragged, all is good. Ish.

Monte have shown enough to make us believe they could and should be at some more events this year, if not just to see Bymas and Rainwaker in tier one again. There’s a certain joy to seeing players who were once discarded rock up and look decent at the top tier.

NAVI needed OT on Mirage but showed their class to get past a tricky B8 team who had already given both FURIA and Spirit a headache.

npl looked to be haunting his old team but didn’t quite have the muscle to get B8 over the line, though he wasn’t helped by his team who appeared to be not quite at the level today. s1zzi has been an obvious upgrade over segukawa, but he’s still wildly inconsistent and was not great today.

FURIA survived elimination by besting HEROIC, though getting goobed on their own map pick wasn't the most encouraging sign.

They ran away with Dust 2 before getting owned on Overpass, but some very important rounds from KSCERATO got them going on Inferno and yuurih showed up in spades later on.

We still have concerns, but it's easy to forget that FalleN wouldn't be here in the playoffs and it's an online stage, two mitigating factors that might affect FURIA's concentration and motivation, so we're going to have to let them have a pass for a bit. They were just about good enough today against a HEROIC team who are a bit all over the shop, but there's a reason they were in this game in ther first place.

3DMAX picked up another marquee win with a 2-0 over one of the hottest teams in the world, FUT, which now has us very invested in the new team.

This was a perfect team performance, the type we’d gotten used to seeing from 3DMAX, as they abused the weak spots in FUT’s setups time and time again, earning themselves another proof of concept victory. We’re all in.

Legacy put Astralis in the blender with two brilliant performances that saw them lead by eight then four at the half. arT was properly back on his nonsense, and honestly it’s a delight to watch. Legacy are genuinely a must-watch team at the moment, and we can’t believe quite how good they’ve been.

They’re certainly the best Brazilian team here.

Better than paiN, who were soundly beaten by Aurora. XANTARES might be 30, but he looks like he might be world class for quite a lot longer still. He was a battering ram for Aurora who won them this game almost on his own.