ESL Pro League Season 14 Group B preview

The second week of EPL sees six new teams enter the arena. Group B is filled with teams that need to take the next step, being it either finally winning trophies or making it out of the groupstage.

G2

Photo: ESL

It’s no longer a question of whether if G2 is going to lift a trophy, but when. The Balkan-French squad has made it to at least the semifinals at the last six events it attended. But there is one big problem: they can’t seem to beat CIS teams when it matters. A 3-0 loss to Na’Vi in the grand final of IEM Cologne proved once again that Russian squads are G2’s kryptonite. Can G2 finally beat their curse and win EPL?

Virtus.pro

Photo: DreamHack

It’s hard to pinpoint Virtus.pro as a team. While they had some disappointing results in the past few months, you can’t really say that the team has a problem. They still play a highly successful and quite unique style of CS. Teams have caught to their slow and methodical T-sides, but Jame and his men are still competitive in every single matchup.

Sinners

Photo: Sinners Esports

Do you want to hear a bold prediction? Sinners are making it to the playoffs at EPL. The Czech squad around experienced AWPer oskar is a name not too many people are familiar with, but that’s something that will change after this week. Sinners are a fresh face in the highest tier of Counter-Strike, despite being headlined by well-known veteran oskar. Keep an eye on NEOFRAG, as the young rifler has impressed in the past few months.

Complexity

Photo: BLAST

We have to cut Complexity some slack. Replacing your coach and a crucial roleplayer like rush will negatively impact your performances in the short term.  Es3tag and peacemaker are good additions to the team and might be an improvement in the future, but for EPL they will prove too much of a shock to the system. The loss of konfig to a wrist injury further lowers the expectation around the roster.

OG

Photo: BLAST

OG are facing a different situation. They underwent drastic roster changes at the start of the year, and are now at a point where they need to start delivering results. Jaxon has been very critical about the team, even questioning whether aleksib is able to lead them to good results. OG need a solid performance at EPL to silence that criticism. Just making playoffs won’t be enough. But that doesn’t seem to be the most likely thing to happen.

forZe

Photo: DreamHack

Being a substitute team is always a tough task. ForZe were called on week’s notice to replace the unfortunate Renegades after the Aussies were unable to travel to Europe. How far the Russian squad can go in EPL is a bit of a mystery, but rest assured that they won’t leave the event before taking down some big names.