ESL Pro League Season 16 Group B Recap

The second group has seen less upsets and more standard fare.

If you followed the matches of ESL Pro League Season 16’s Group A and were hoping to see similar turmoil in Group B, prepare to be disappointed. The established order remained untouched as the 3 strongest teams took up their positions at the top of the table by defeating their less-experienced (or out of form, in the case of BIG) opponents.

Group B features the likes of reigning Major champion FaZe Clan, Portuguese underdogs FTW Esports, CIS powerhouse Outsiders, an embattled German BIG, European giants G2 Esports, and the Brazilian boys of MIBR.

Group B Day 1 And 2 Results

The first day began with FaZe taking out FTW 2-0 in what was the most one-sided set of matches the tournament has seen so far. This was followed by Outsiders sweeping BIG comfortably before G2 rendered the same fate unto MIBR.

On the second day, it was Outsiders’ turn to put FTW in the ground, with the Portuguese squad doing slightly better against the Russians. G2 then edged BIG out in consecutive matches to make the series look a lot less close than it had actually been. The last match was the only one so far to include a surprise as MIBR won their first map against FaZe, but the European powerhouse quickly bounced back to reverse-sweep the South Americans.

How The Group B Table Stands

Right now, FaZe Clan is comfortably on top with 6 points and a round spread of +37, with Outsiders and G2 not far behind with the same number of points and 26 and 22 rounds respectively.

ESL Pro League Season 16 Day 1 and Day 2 Recap

Let’s take a look at how the matches of the first two days of Group B went.

Day 1

Håvard “rain” Nygaard and Helvijs “broky” Saukants were absolutely scintillating as the current CSGO overlords danced circles around the relative newbies. They won 16-4 on both Inferno and Overpass.

Outsiders had been struggling for a while, but they put their woes behind to beat BIG — a team that has been struggling even more as of late. It was a team effort that won them Dust 2 16-9, and strong performances from Evgeniy “FL1T” Lebedev and Aleksei “Qikert” Golubev that won them Inferno 16-11.

The Brazilians would have a lot to prove in this tournament, but given their results it’s beginning to feel like that might not happen any time soon. Up against G2, they were massacred 16-5 on Dust 2, with Rasmus “huNter-” Nielsen’s performance being head and shoulders above the rest. This was followed by a better performance on Ancient (16-10), but with the same end result with Nikola “NiKo” Kovač top fragging for the boys in black.

Day 2

The morning of the second day saw FTW put up a better fight against Outsiders, but to no avail. The CIS team won 16-8 on Vertigo and 16-10 on Dust 2, with FL1T starring in both.

BIG’s loss on the first day seemed to have spurred them on, but their results remained unchanged as they lost 19-16 on Mirage and 19-17 on Vertigo to G2. On Mirage, they came back to tie the game but lost, but on Vertigo they failed to convert the game into a win despite getting 7 match points. huNter- and NiKo once again shone brightly for G2 on Mirage and Vertigo respectively.

ESL Pro League Season 16 – Group B Analysis

Unless BIG come back with a series of wins — especially one against a formidable FaZe clan, they will face an early exit from the tournament. This is, of course, barring any massive upsets against any of the teams that currently make up the top half of the group so far. Other than that, the only real competition in this group will be to determine which of the stronger teams takes which berth forward.

Join us in 3 days’ time as we cover the final standings for Group B. Plus you'll find more esports news, CS:GO betting tips, player deep dives and more here on ESTNN!