Team Falcons and Astralis, arguably two of the teams that were expected to qualify for the playoffs of ESL Pro League S20 with ease, have been eliminated from the tournament after a disappointing performance.
Both of them had three tournament lives and they managed to lose all three of them despite the fact that their opponents weren’t top-5 teams.
Team Falcons’ Results
Team Falcons started EPL S20 in group D with a match against FURIA Esports. The Brazilians sent Falcons to the mid bracket after an epic battle that needed three maps to conclude: 13 – 10 on Nuke, 10 – 13 on Anubis, 13 – 9 on Dust II.
The second match of the tournament was very easy to win for Danny “zonic” Sorensen’s crew, but that’s because the opponent, ATOX Esports, is currently ranked 93rd globally.
Immediately after this match, Falcons encountered a much better team, Virtus.pro, and lost. This defeat was painful to watch and the scores speak for themselves: 13 – 16 on Dust II, 16 – 13 on Vertigo, 13 – 11 on Ancient. On the third map, Falcons nearly came back from 9 – 3, which made the last round heartbreaking.
In the fourth match, RED Canids should not have defeated them. But, probably because of the demoralizing defeat suffered on the previous day, Falcons lost against this Brazilian team that’s currently ranked 56th. It’s worth mentioning, however, that on RED Canids’ roster are two formidable players: Marcelo “coldzera” David and Henrique “HEN1” Teles.
Astralis’ Results
Astralis started their EPL S20 run with a defeat against Fnatic. The two teams hadn’t faced each other since November 2022. Fnatic won that match at Elisa Masters Espoo. This time, Astralis were expected to win without too many problems. But their former player, Benjamin “blameF” Bremer, had other plans.
In the mid bracket, the Danish team encountered Complexity and narrowly lost the match: 19 – 17 on Vertigo, 16 – 14 on Inferno. The two teams then met each other for a second time in the lower bracket, after Astralis defeated Rooster 2 – 0.
This time, it felt as though Complexity would win again 2 – 0. But in the end, the match needed three maps to conclude: 13 – 10 on Vertigo, 6 – 13 on Inferno, 16 – 14 on Nuke. Once again, the final map was dramatic and sad for Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz, who will need to rethink his team’s strategy for the upcoming tournaments.
