ESL Pro League Europe: FaZe tops Group B while NiP disappoints

Group B of ESL Pro League Europe comes to a close today. With FaZe Clan topping the group after a clean sweep, the recent Blast Pro Series Miami winners advance to the finals. They will be joining mousesports who have already qualified following a successful run in group A. The same cannot be said about Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund’s NiP, unfortunately, whose run at the tournament ends. Meanwhile, Wiktor “TaZ” Wojtas’s devils.one and Heroic stay alive.

FaZe carry over the momentum from Blast Pro Series

After a fantastic performance at Blast Pro Series, Nikola “NiKo” Kovač’s FaZe advance to ESL Pro League Season 9 finals undefeated. FaZe destroyed TaZ’s new Polish formation, devils.one, in a two-match sweep. After that, Heroic was the next team to fall after the matchup went to three maps. Lastly, Ninjas in Pyjamas failed to counter FaZe on Mirage; Ninjas brought it close to a 16-14 score before getting devoured on Dust2 16-4. The Ninjas looked lackluster, especially GeT_RiGhT, who only got 19 frags over the span of two maps.

FaZe Clan look just as strong as at the recent Blast Pro with not only NiKo but Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer and Håvard “rain” Nygaard looking sharp as well. If they can carry over this level of consistency even further, then this team will definitely be a contender for the grand finale.

NiP pack their bags

With the group consisting of NiP, FaZe, devils.one, and Heroic, most expected both FaZe and the Ninjas to go through undoubtedly. This, however, did not happen. NiP only secured a win against Heroic, creating a three-way tie between Taz’s devils.one, Heroic, and NiP. Due to devils.one picking up a map against Heroic before their loss, they get to go through while NiP pack their bags and leave Leicester.

After a great run at IEM Katowice two months ago, NiP didn’t find much success afterward. The Ninjas participated at both Blast Pro Series in Sao Paulo and StarSeries i-League. They failed to leave a significant mark at both events. GeT_RiGhT looked especially inefficient at this event, placing last overall on all three matches. We saw him have fantastic games and impact a few months back, but it seems like the spark is slowly fading once more.

Here are the final standings for group B:

What do you think of FaZe Clan’s and NiP performance? Do you think FaZe can reach the final of ESL Pro League? Let us know in the comments below and remember to follow us!