Three takeaways from Group A – ESL Pro League

There’s been a whirlwind of Counter-Strike in the last few weeks, and it’s easy to forget what you learnt as it gets pushed out by new information. Pretty sure there’s a Simpsons reference for that, but that’s true of most things.

Of course there is.

Cartoons aside, it’s time to talk about the things that really matter in life, the grown-up stuff: video games.

Heroic don’t even need the coach bug to be good

Heroic ran a train on Group A,  lacerating everybody from head to toe with bullets. A filthy 10-2 map record really helped outline the gulf in class between them and The Other Danish Team.

I’ll get to that.

I’m not sure who’s doing the coaching for these boys, but they’re doing their best Kanye West impression right now.

Kanye’s coach was also using the bug, I reckon.

There might be some other… complications with the team, but these boys are smashing it in the server.

Team Spirit did NOT use the player break well

How do you come out of a month break unable to play two of the maps in the pool?

Heroic don’t even HAVE a real coach and they bloody managed, so there’s not really any excuses. While playing Spirit on Dust 2 is the equivalent of challenging Stockfish to a game of minute chess, playing them on Inferno is like taking Deep Blue on at chess boxing.

Which wouldn’t be an issue if they didn’t also have a permaban.

I love Team Spirit, but they need to fix their map pool issues if they want to prove to everyone else they weren’t just a flash in the pan.

ENCE > Astralis

What a weird title to write, but even weirder that it’s this version of ENCE.

ENCE saw the coming free fall of Finnish CS and instead opted to go international, and it’s paid off for them. Spinx looks like a talent, hades has come out of nowhere to be an absolute beast on the AWP, and even Snappi has had a resurgence.

Maybe that’s a sign, Astralis. This mish-mash team of Danes you found lying around just isn’t cutting it – and the explosion of Heroic only exists to further underline how far the mighty have fallen.

If ENCE can outdo you by picking up a player you would turn your nose up at, maybe it’s time to go outside of Denmark and find the inspiration to be good again.