Group D of ESL Pro League Season 17 enters its Mid Bracket Semifinal as we go deep into Team Spirit vs Team Liquid
The Cold War may have ended, but battles between American and Russian teams rage on in almost every sport — including the PC-based variety. Heading into the second round of the Mid Bracket of ESL Pro League, we have a battle between two teams that literally call themselves that — Team Liquid and Team Spirit. The two clans have close battles across multiple different esports, and being somewhat evenly matched in CSGO, they should have a close encounter. If you’re into CSGO betting or just a big fan of the game and teams, here’s our preview.
Team Spirit
Following a fantastic showing against Astralis, Spirit were the favorites going up against fellow Russian side forZe, but they couldn’t quite bring their A-game. Now they’re in the Mid Bracket, and facing a Liquid that was devoured whole by another underdog, Rare Atom. In terms of rankings, Spirit are at a relatively low 14 while their opponents are riding high at number 3, so the Russians will have their work cut out for them. Mathematics aside, both teams look pretty close to each other in terms of both skill and play style at this event.
Players
Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov
- HLTV Rating: 0.96
- Impact Rating: 0.99
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 69.9%
- Average Damage Round: 72.0
- Kills Per Round: 0.65
Boris “magixx” Vorobyev
- HLTV Rating: 1.05
- Impact Rating: 0.98
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 71.6%
- Average Damage Round: 70.8
- Kills Per Round: 0.65
Robert “Patsi” Isyanov
- HLTV Rating: 1.09
- Impact Rating: 1.15
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 69.5%
- Average Damage Round: 79.7
- Kills Per Round: 0.71
Pavel “s1ren” Ogloblin
- HLTV Rating: 1.03
- Impact Rating: 0.96
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 71.4%
- Average Damage Round: 71.4
- Kills Per Round: 0.66
Ihor “w0nderful” Zhdanov
- HLTV Rating: 1.20
- Impact Rating: 1.12
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 74.6%
- Average Damage Round: 76.8
- Kills Per Round: 0.76
Player to Watch
After a fantastic performance by the rifler yesterday, we’re going with Patsi as the player to watch on Team Spirit for this matchup.
Team Liquid
After a humbling experience on the first day, Liquid came back to get a slight morale boost with a 2-0 win over their second low-ranked team in as many days, ATK. The American side is no stranger to setbacks, and they have made a bit of a name for themselves by bouncing back right afterwards time and again. That being said, given how this group is going, nothing is for certain. Liquid will have to fight through a veritable gauntlet if they are to make the main stage, and beating Spirit would be a big step towards that goal.
Players
Nick “nitr0” Cannella
- HLTV Rating: 0.99
- Impact Rating: 0.98
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 71.1%
- Average Damage Round: 70.7
- Kills Per Round: 0.66
Joshua “oSee” Ohm
- HLTV Rating: 1.14
- Impact Rating: 1.12
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 72.9%
- Average Damage Round: 75.6
- Kills Per Round: 0.73
Keith “NAF” Markovic
- HLTV Rating: 1.09
- Impact Rating: 1.08
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 73.4%
- Average Damage Round: 81.1
- Kills Per Round: 0.73
Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski
- HLTV Rating: 1.08
- Impact Rating: 1.23
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 71.3%
- Average Damage Round: 83.3
- Kills Per Round: 0.75
Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis
- HLTV Rating: 1.14
- Impact Rating: 1.29
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 68.7%
- Average Damage Round: 82.7
- Kills Per Round: 0.75
Player to Watch
For this series, we have a gut feeling that the flicks and quickscopes of oSee will do a lot of the talking for the American side.
ESL Pro League Season 17 Group D: Team Spirit vs Team Liquid Predictions
The prospect of such a close match is both something that gets us salivating as CSGO fans and scratching our heads as predictors, but we’ll go with a 2-1 win for Liquid.
Maps
As for maps, we’re predicting Mirage for Liquid and Ancient for Spirit, with the leftover likely being Anubis.
Score
Map 1: Spirit to win with Liquid >11.
Map 2: Liquid to win with Spirit >12.
Map 3: Liquid to win with Spirit
Top Fragger
Although we’ve got Liquid winning the series, we’re going to go with Spirit’s w0nderful as the top fragger for the series. The AWPer is in scintillating form, and although we haven’t tipped him as the player to watch, we feel like he’ll be the one with the most kills on aggregate.
Match Links
Keep an eye on ESL’s Twitch or YouTube channels, with coverage set to begin at 11:00 ET/10:00 CST/09:00 PT.
Remember to look around our site for all our other CSGO pieces, including guides, previews, news and more.
