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

It’s the battle of a rising power versus a giant gone to seed with ATK vs ENCE in Group D of ESL Pro League Season 17

A battle between teams of different regions is always interesting to watch, and up-and-coming South African side ATK’s match against Finnish legends ENCE could garner a lot of interest from the CSGO crowd. The two teams are worlds apart both geographically and in terms of ranking, with ATK ranked 77th to ENCE’s 20th, but CSGO is a strange game, and surprises from underdogs are always welcome. Whether you’re betting on CSGO or just want to know more about these teams, here’s our thorough preview and attempt at making predictions.

ATK 

The South African side compete in the North American region, and although the most they’ve ever won are a couple of B-Tier tournaments last year, it’s a big step up from the C-Tier reality they were in the year prior. The team has a lot of potential, and a tournament like Pro League is sure to be one that gives them the experience they need to move up in the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJm2cO3xBLI

Players

Gareth “MisteM” Ries

• HLTV Rating: 1.04
• Impact Rating: 1.06
• Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 68.8%
• Average Damage Round: 75.2
• 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: 79.9
• 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: 73.9
• Kills Per Round: 0.67

Aleksandar “CacaNito” Kjulukoski

• HLTV Rating: 1.15
• Impact Rating: 1.24
• Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 69.2%
• Average Damage Round: 85.7
• Kills Per Round: 0.76

Player to Watch

There’s been a lot of buzz regarding the North Macedonian CacaNito, who has been tipped to be a rising star of the region. We’re going with the young gun on this one.

ENCE 

There was a time when ENCE were one of Europe’s powerhouses, competing for the biggest prizes, but that is long in the past now. ENCE have been struggling for almost a year now since their top 4 finish at the PGL Antwerp Major last year, and there have been no signs of improvement with their only real triumph being a win at a B-Tier competition. This current Major cycle will probably the last chance the current core roster will get, and we hope they make the best of it.

Players

Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer

• HLTV Rating: 0.95
• Impact Rating: 0.96
• Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 69.4%
• Average Damage Round: 72.5
• Kills Per Round: 0.65

Paweł “dycha” Dycha

• HLTV Rating: 1.12
• Impact Rating: 1.15
• Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 70.6%
• Average Damage Round: 81.1
• Kills Per Round: 0.73

Pavle “maden” Bošković

• HLTV Rating: 1.08
• Impact Rating: 1.17
• Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 68.5%
• Average Damage Round: 79.3
• Kills Per Round: 0.72

Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia

• HLTV Rating: 1.16
• Impact Rating: 1.15
• Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 72.8%
• Average Damage Round: 74.2
• Kills Per Round: 0.72

Guy “NertZ” Iluz

• HLTV Rating: 1.10
• Impact Rating: 1.28
• Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 68.9%
• Average Damage Round: 85.0
• Kills Per Round: 0.77

Player to watch

The most consistent player on the team at the moment is almost certainly SunPayus, and we’re tipping the deadly rookie with an AWP of gold as the team-topper for ENCE.

Predictions 

Given the chasm between the ranks of these two teams, we’ll go with a 2-0 for ENCE on this one.

Maps 

ATK are an unknown quantity for the most part, but they will likely pick a common map like Mirage first up, with ENCE following up with Nuke if possible. After all is said and done, we’re going wild with the idea that Ancient will be left.

Score 

Map 1: ENCE to win with ATK <8.

Map 2: ENCE to win with ATK <9.

Top Fragger

If SunPayus does end up having a good day with the AWP — as we predicted him to — no one on the server will have more kills than him.

Match Links

Catch the matches on Twitch and YouTube at the links given. The game is scheduled to start at 14:30 ET/15:30 CST/16:30 PT, but there could be delays based on the preceding match’s length.

Join us for tomorrow’s previews, and feel free to read the vast array of other content we have on offer.