ESL Pro League Season 17 Group Stage Day 3 Recap

Another day, another array of top-tier CSGO matches at the ESL Pro League Season 17. 

As Group A matures, some teams have fallen off into the lower level of the novel Triple Elimination Bracket system, while others continue to persevere through the upper spots. The third day only had two Bo3 series, but featured the first three-game series of the tournament. Even in just those two matches, however, there were plenty of remarkable plays and important moments for the tournament as a whole. If you haven’t been able to catch the matches live, here’s how it all went down.

ESL Pro League Season 17 Group A Day 3 Matches

As we mentioned before, only two matches took place on Day 3. Fnatic restarted their stumbled journey against a resurgent Eternal Fire, while a shaken but unbroken G2 Esports took on Brazilian underdogs MIBR. 

Fnatic vs Eternal Fire 

A loss against Outsiders in the Upper Bracket Semifinals meant that Fnatic would have to make the Playoffs the harder way, which would possibly include facing an extremely dangerous G2. However, before that, they had to face Turkish powerhouse Eternal Fire. EF had previously troubled G2 somewhat before making relatively short work of EG, and they were well prepared for Fnatic.

Eternal Fire’s pick of Anubis saw the underdogs pick up a decent 7 rounds on the map’s notoriously difficult CT-side, and once the tables turned, their attack was far more incisive than Fnatic’s had been. Not allowing the Swedes to put up much of a defense or consolidate their economy, the Turks finished the game 16-11 to take the lead in the series. Despite an excellent turn by William “mezii” Merriman, the efforts of Ömer “imoRR” Karataş were more impactful. 

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On Fnatic’s pick Overpass, things turned out to be very different. EF’s defensive half started well enough, but the Swedes went on a 7-round romp to get to a 10-3 lead before the former was able to end the half with 5 rounds for themselves. While EF also put up a commendable display on the attack, Fnatic’s CT-side was much more solid and they were able to close the game out with a perfect 16-11 comeback. This time, it was the new boy Dion “FASHR” Derksen who stood out with a brilliant 26 kills, while Fredrik “roeJ” Jørgensen provided great support.

Moving on to Nuke, Fnatic were in much better flow, and they came back from being 6-4 down on the defense to finish the half nicely with a 6-9 score. EF’s defense initially seemed to be solid, but once the dams broke Fnatic cleaned house and won 16-11 for the third result in the series with the same exact score. Old man Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson stepped up for the Swedes, with great support from Nico “nicoodoz” Tamjidi.

G2 Esports vs MIBR

G2 may have been beaten at last, but they didn’t let that go to their head as they were their usual masterful selves in their game against MIBR. Meanwhile, the Brazilians had salvaged some good memories from the event by beating IHC, but G2 was just too tall an order for the relatively underwhelming side.

The Brazilians only managed a measly 3 rounds on the T-side of their pick Vertigo. They started decently, but G2 proceeded to go on a 9-round streak which took the steam out of the Brazilians until the very last round of the half. On the other side, MIBR started well with 4 straight rounds, but it wasn’t long before G2 ended things with a convincing 16-8 scoreline. An exemplary performance by Matheus “Tuurtle” Anhaia was in vain as Nemanja “huNter-” Kovač and Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov ruled the map for the French side.

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Moving on to Nuke, G2’s now-legendary T-side on the map was on full display as they piled up a terrifying 10 rounds on the attack. However, their defense wasn’t as solid, and MIBR were able to get 7 rounds before the world number 1 team finally closed out the game 16-12. m0NESY was incredible once again along with his mentor Nikola “NiKo” Kovač, but big props go to the young Felipe “insani” Yuji for getting the highest kills on the server despite the loss.

Join us again on the morrow for yet another recap of Day 4, and check out our other CSGO content as well.