ESL Pro League Season 17 Group D: ATK vs Astralis Preview and Predictions

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ESL Pro League Season 17 Group D: ATK vs Astralis Preview and Predictions

The journey of the Lower Bracket of Group D of ESL Pro League Season 17 begins with ATK taking on Astralis


It’s always hard for fans or even distant admirers to swallow the fall of a giant, and watching Astralis go from being the best of all time to a team that can’t seem to win against Tier 1 teams has been akin to that. It’s the feeling of watching an irreparable end of an era, and it’s almost surreal. Now they’ll be up against South African side ATK, and if they fail to win this even with their recent recruitments, they’ll have to consider some major changes. If you’re looking to place bets on CSGO today or just want to know more about the teams, here’s our in-depth preview.

ATK

There’s no doubt that ATK have shown that they’re better than most people assumed them to be after taking a map off of ENCE and putting up a decent fight in one map against Team Liquid. The young side has a lot of talent, and could really come into their own with more matches against top-level opponents. In fact, considering the fact that Astralis have a habit of losing to much lower ranked opponents, this is a great chance for this team to etch their name into ESL Pro League lore.

Players

Gareth “MisteM” Ries

  • HLTV Rating: 1.04
  • Impact Rating: 1.06
  • Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 68.7%
  • Average Damage Round: 75.0
  • Kills Per Round: 0.68

Jonathan “b0denmaster” Bodenmalm

  • HLTV Rating: 1.08
  • Impact Rating: 1.12
  • Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 69.5%
  • Average Damage Round: 73.1
  • Kills Per Round: 0.69

Michael “Swisher” Schmid

  • HLTV Rating: 1.10
  • Impact Rating: 1.12
  • Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 70.8%
  • Average Damage Round: 80.0
  • Kills Per Round: 0.72

Jonathan “djay” Dallal

  • HLTV Rating: 1.03
  • Impact Rating: 0.98
  • Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 70.6%
  • Average Damage Round: 73.8
  • Kills Per Round: 0.67

Aleksandar “CacaNito” Kjulukoski

  • HLTV Rating: 1.15
  • Impact Rating: 1.24
  • Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 69.1%
  • Average Damage Round: 85.6
  • Kills Per Round: 0.76

Player to Watch

Considering his incredible consistency at the event, it’s hard not to go with Swisher as the player to watch on ATK. The entry-fragging rifler looks like the most LAN-ready player on his team by some way.

Astralis

Even as we start to write this, we can’t help but heave a deep sigh. Astralis can’t seem to swallow the fact that the primes of some of their best players have slipped away, and that they will only occasionally come alive just like many other aging stars on the scene right now. They were able to put up a good fight against Natus Vincere, but that’s more of a giveaway as to how far Na’ Vi have also fallen than credit to the Danes. Here’s to hoping they understand their issues and do something to fix them.

Players

Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth

  • HLTV Rating: 1.01
  • Impact Rating: 0.96
  • Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 72.1%
  • Average Damage Round: 74.4
  • Kills Per Round: 0.66

Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander 

  • HLTV Rating: 0.98
  • Impact Rating: 1.04
  • Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 70.0%
  • Average Damage Round: 74.4
  • Kills Per Round: 0.66

Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz

  • HLTV Rating: 1.16
  • Impact Rating: 1.28
  • Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 71.3%
  • Average Damage Round: 80.4
  • Kills Per Round: 0.78

Benjamin “blameF” Bremer

  • HLTV Rating: 1.23
  • Impact Rating: 1.23
  • Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 74.0%
  • Average Damage Round: 85.7
  • Kills Per Round: 0.77

Christian “Buzz” Andersen

  • HLTV Rating: 1.04
  • Impact Rating: 1.04
  • Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 69.8%
  • Average Damage Round: 74.9
  • Kills Per Round: 0.66

Player to Watch

Once again, it’s a contest between dev1ce and blameF, but we’d rather watch the former because he’s less likely to bait his teammates and put his team in jeopardy as a result.

ESL Pro League Season 17 Group D: ATK vs Astralis Predictions 

Astralis’ game seems to have improved following their loss to Spirit, so we’ll go with them for a 2-0 win. 

Maps 

Astralis haven’t played Anubis at the pro level yet while it’s ATK’s best map, so it’ll probably be removed as the South Africans go for Mirage instead. The Danes will probably go for Ancient as ATK will be forced to remove Nuke since they haven’t played it at the top level. The decider, should it be needed, will probably be Mirage.

Score 

Map 1: Astralis to win with ATK <12.

Map 2: Astralis to win with ATK <8.

Top Fragger

Although dev1ce is a strong contender, blameF is notoriously good against smaller teams, and we think he’ll take it upon himself to pad his stats this game.

Match Links

ESL’s Twitch and YouTube channels will both broadcast the matches, with coverage set to begin at 07:30 ET/06:30 CST/05:30 PT.

Keep tabs on us for more in-depth match previews, and go through our vast library of CSGO articles while you’re at it.

ESL Pro League Season 17 Group D: ATK vs Astralis Preview and Predictions
The Old One
When he's not sighing at sub-standard teammates in Dota 2 and CS2, The Old One is writing about those two games (among other things). If you see his name around the site too many times for your liking, well, the guy just never stops writing. Yes, we've tried an intervention.