eSports

Favorites prevail as ESL Pro League Season 19 Groups A and B conclude

April 29, 2024

We’re officially at the halfway point of the ESL Pro League Season 19 Group Stage, with the conclusion of Groups A and B. A few days back, we covered the first two days of the event, and now we’re bringing you the highlights from the closing days of these two Groups.

We’ve seen a ton of amazing matches played in Malta so far, and we’re bringing you the need-to-know highlights of Groups A and B.

Astralis and Vitality head straight to the Quarter-Finals

Credit: Igor Bezborodov | © ESL

Although we’re only just through Groups A and B at ESL Pro League Season 19, we already have our first two Quarter-Finalists. Astralis and Vitality were the winners of Group A and B respectively, securing themselves a minimum top-8 finish in Malta.

With the way both of these teams have been playing, you’d expect both to progress a step further in the tournament here. Both teams have their AWPers to thank for their current positions, with dev1ce and ZywOo going lights-out in ESL Pro League so far. If this duo retains their current form into the Playoffs, Astralis and Vitality will be tough to beat throughout.

Favorites make it through

Credit: Igor Bezborodov | © ESL

By and large, Groups A and B saw all of the favorites progress. From our point of view, there were no real surprises here (no, Falcons crashing out is NOT a surprise). We always expected the likes of FaZe, Virtus.pro, and G2 to make it through, and while they had to make Lower Bracket and Last Chance runs to do so, all that matters is they got the job done in the end.

FaZe’s run is the most impressive of the lot. After losing to Astralis, they had the tough task of taking down Virtus.pro and Eternal Fire to secure their Lower Bracket run. They were led by a fantastic broky, who continued his immense form from IEM Chengdu 2024.

Meanwhile, electroNic‘s Virtus.pro debut saw the team go all the way through the Last Chance Bracket, where straight sweeps against Fnatic and SAW were required to reach the Playoffs. Virtus.pro has largely been a team effort here, although they’ll certainly want to see a little more from n0rb3r7 as we move deeper into ESL Pro League Season 19.

Finally, we want to discuss G2. They also required the Last Chance Bracket to progress in Malta, putting down Falcons and M80 in the process. This was undoubtedly a messy run, but they won’t mind given the resurgent form of huNter- and NiKo.