CS:GO: Fnatic, Team Liquid Win ESL Pro League Season 11
| Tags: CS2
| Author Caroline Rutledge
ESL Pro League’s online season has found its champions.
The eleventh season of ESL’s CS:GO Pro League has come to an end, though this time without a LAN Final. Due to coronavirus concerns, the league was split into two regional divisions, Europe and North America respectively, and was played fully online. As no international Grand Final was possible, two regional champions were crowned.
Europe
Fnatic began their EPL run in Group B, suffering an opening loss to BIG Clan. They quickly found their form, defeating CompLexity, North, and ForZe before falling to Natus Vincere. The Swedish squad placed second in their group, earning a spot in the play-in. They next took on domestic rivals Ninjas in Pyjamas, securing a 2-1 victory to lock in their spot in stage two.
Fnatic quickly proved their worth in the second stage, taking only one upset loss to OG as they beat FaZe, Astralis, mousesports, and NaVi to secure their spot in the Grand Final. Astralis and mousesports met in the semi-final, with the latter finding a 2-1 win to advance forward. Fnatic took their revenge on mousesports in an EPL Season 10 Final rematch, defeating the multinational squad 3-2 in Season 11’s best-of-five Grand Final. 17-year-old Fnatic star Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin was named MVP of the European league.
North America
On the North American side, Team Liquid kicked off their ESL Pro League Season 11 run with a 2-0 victory over MIBR. The team found another win over 100 Thieves, and upset losses to Swole Patrol and FURIA had no effect on their first-place group standing. Liquid met Evil Geniuses in the upper bracket final, besting their domestic opponents 2-1 to secure a Grand Final appearance.
Evil Geniuses ran the gauntlet through the lower bracket final, defeating FURIA to claim their own Grand Final spot. Coming from the upper bracket, Liquid were given a one-map advantage in the best-of-five Final. Battling on Dust2 and Vertigo, Team Liquid took the series victory in a clean sweep. Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski was awarded the MVP title for the North American league.
Both Fnatic and Team Liquid will next compete online in ESL One: Road to Rio in their respective regions.
Caroline is an esports journalist focusing on CS:GO. Starting out as a casual CS:GO fan, her interest quickly turned into a passion as she spent years studying the game. She has put that knowledge to use as a journalist, now writing about professional CS:GO for multiple websites including TheGamer.