The first matchday of stage 2 of ESL Pro League S21 ended with multiple surprises. Team Liquid, Eternal Fire, and Natus Vincere lost their opening matches despite facing supposedly weaker opponents.
At the same time, it seems that Team Falcons have managed to break their curse from 2024. At IEM Katowice, they finished 13th – 16th, which was not great but not terrible either compared to what we saw from them last year.
More recently, at PGL Cluj-Napoca, they played in the Grand Final and defeated opponents like Astralis, MOUZ, and FaZe Clan along the way. This was by far their best result yet in more than three years of activity.
Now, at ESL Pro League S21, Team Falcons defeated Liquid 2 – 1 in a match that had three close maps. The scores were 16 – 14 on Inferno, 9 – 13 on Dust II, and 16 – 13 on Ancient.
Nikola “NiKo” Kovač made an important contribution to the team’s success. Even though he’s not the IGL, his input is likely very valuable and respected by everyone on the roster.
Overall Results for Day 1 of Stage 2
The eight winners of day 1 were these:
- 3DMAX – they defeated Eternal Fire
- G2 Esports – they defeated paiN Gaming
- MOUZ – they defeated FURIA Esports
- SAW – they defeated NAVI
- Team Falcons – they defeated Liquid
- Team Spirit – they defeated TYLOO
- Team Vitality – they defeated MIBR
- The MongolZ – they defeated GamerLegion
NAVI’s defeat against SAW was by far the biggest surprise of day 1. The match started well for the Ukrainian team but then something happened. After winning 13 – 3 on Inferno, they lost 9 – 13 on Nuke and 4 – 13 on Ancient.
Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen had a terrible performance on the third map, ending with 2 – 14. But he’s not the only one who underperformed.
Predictions
Based on what we’ve seen so far, Spirit, Vitality, The MongolZ, MOUZ, and G2 are almost guaranteed to qualify for the playoffs. NAVI, Liquid, and EF are supposed to complete the top eight but their chances are uncertain at the moment.
