The first week of the ESL Pro League brought intense matches in groups A and B. Sixteen teams entered the competition, but only eight of them got to the playoffs. This competition has a weird format of a triple elimination bracket in the group stage. However, there is a practical sense in that the higher you place, the more bonuses you receive in the playoffs.

Group A brought lots of surprises as the two biggest favourites, FaZe Clan and Virtus.pro, finished the stage in third and fourth places, respectively. FaZe Clan lost to Astralis, who topped the group. If we look at the results of IEM Chengdu, the high seed in the playoffs didn't help the Danish team. Maybe it will be a different story this time, but for now, we congratulate them! 

Virtus.pro was expected to be unstable as Electronic had only recently arrived at this club. They started the tournament with a loss to Fnatic. However, in the lowest bracket, VP had a successful rematch against the European squad and sent them home.

In group B, we can think of two notable moments. First of all, The MongolZ finished the group second. This team has been on the radar for quite some time, yet some people still tend to understate them. Also, G2 Esports finished the group stage in fourth place, which is not a good sign. They are still moving on to playoffs, although they are in the lowest possible seed.

The tournament continues on Tuesday as teams from groups C and D enter the stage.

Main image: x.com

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