ESL Pro League: BIG and Sprout against top teams challenged

BIG and Sprout start into the ESL Pro League. The German CS:GO teams meet strong opponents. BIG plays against FaZe Clan on Tuesday, Sprout meets Team Vitality with superstar Mathieu “ZywOo” on Friday Herbaut.

BIG and Sprout have been assigned strong opponents in the group phase of the tenth season of the ESL Pro League. The groups were classified according to the ESL CS:GO World Ranking. It is comforting for the Germans, however, that there is no easy group. The Pro League starts with 16 teams divided into four groups. Sprout only made it into the CS:GO, elite league, last season.

BIG will play the opening match in Group A on Tuesday. The international star ensemble of the FaZe Clan is the first opponent. Only at the end of August FaZe signed Marcelo “coldzera” David, who came from MIBR. The Brazilian was once one of the best players in Counter-Strike. But the debut at the ESL ONE New York did not succeed. FaZe was eliminated without a sound.

Rebuilding at BIG

The current uncertainty at FaZe, however, is no reason to reassure BIG. Because the opponent at the start has great individual quality in his own ranks with Håvard “rain” Nygaard, Nikola “NiKo” Kovač and Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer Gustafsson. Also, coldzera needs a familiarisation phase to adapt to FaZe’s automation. A stronger FaZe can, therefore, be expected on Tuesday.

BIG can start into the Pro League with self-confidence despite the difficult tasks. The rebuilding after the farewell of the German CS legend Fatih “gob b” Dayik seems promising. Under the new ingame leader (IGL) Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz, BIG showed a respectable counter-strike. Besides FaZe, BIG meets mousesports and OpTic Gaming in Group A.

Reunion with ZywOo

The up-and-comer Sprout meets with Team Vitality at the start on the supposedly toughest chunk in Group B. The team around star player ZywOo has also strengthened itself with Richard “shox” Papillon and has already shown with the successful performance, the second place at the DreamHack Masters in Malmö that they can be reckoned with. Further duels in the ESL Pro League follow for Sprout against the Swedes from Ninjas in Pyjamas and the Danes from Heroic.

The Berlin organization wants to establish itself internationally. There is plenty of opportunity for this in the Pro League. Sprouts captain Timo “Spiidi,” Richter says that the goal for the coming season is to maintain the class. The experiences, which could be already collected on this level, are helpful. There has already been a test of strength against the group opponents. “After the Games Clash Masters in Gdynia, the Pro League is our number one priority,” says Spiidi.

The matches of the group phase will be played in the best-of-three format. The first group players will qualify directly for the LAN final, which will take place in Odense from 3rd to 8th December. The winner will receive 250,000 US dollars in prize money and a place at the upcoming Intel Extreme Masters Katowice.