During Week 13, the penultimate week before the end of the online portion of the Pro League, games took on a feverous if not desperate atmosphere. In some do-or-die games, teams attempted to shake each other off in the pursuit of safety and LAN spots. If you missed the action, though, here’s a refresher of what went down.
North America (NA):
In the very first game if the night, DreamHack Montreal champions Cloud9 (C9) secured their safety as they saw off a challenge from Noble esports to win 6-4. In the next match, though, it was Spacestation Gaming (SSG) fans’ turn to be disappointed as their 6-3 loss to mousesports (mouz) put them out of LAN contention. SK Gaming, on the other hand, kept their Finals dreams alive despite a 6-1 clobbering at the hands of Evil Geniuses (EG). Ending the night's action was Rogue, who dragged themselves back in the LAN race as they consigned Obey Alliance to the relegation zone.
As such, Evil Geniuses reclaims first place, and with only their second victory after the Paris Major, Rogue finds itself in third place -- just two points behind SK Gaming in second place. SSG, meanwhile drops to fourth place, with mouz and C9 staying in fifth and sixth respectively. Unfortunately for Obey and Noble, though, both teams now have no escape from the relegation zone and -- as things stand -- will have Noble automatically relegated to the Challenger League.
In this final week, SK Gaming and Rogue will battle it out to determine who will follow Evil Geniuses to Rio de Janeiro. At the other end of the table, however, Obey will be hoping to equal Noble's results at the very least to avoid auto-relegation as the two face Evil Geniuses and mouz respectively.
Latin America (LATAM):
Black Dragons kicked things off on the Brazilian play day as they fell 6-4 to Team oNe in a loss that throws the bottom three places into disarray, while Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP) added to the relegation chaos with a 6-2 win over paiN Gaming. FaZe marched on without missing a step as they took down Team Liquid 6-3, and Immortals ended things as they suffered a surprise 6-2 loss to BootKamp Gaming (BKG).
In a fortuitous result, Immortals (IMT) maintain their position in second, but open the door for a barnstorming finish to the season in the fight for LAN. This is because over the course of the season, IMT beat oNe both times they played, but lost to Liquid twice as well. As such, with IMT sitting in second place with 21 points, and Liquid and oNe having 18 apiece in third and fourth place respectively, the provisional second-placed team holds a superior head-to-head record against the latter. All in all, Immortals will be pulling for oNe to win in their final game against Liquid, or for both teams to draw. Thankfully, with their own upcoming game against NiP the last game of the night, whatever the result of the Liquid-oNe game, they will be the masters of their own destiny and will need just a draw to qualify for LAN.
The bottom of the table is no less complicated. NiP, currently in sixth place, is on equal points with paiN in seventh place, but both squads are only three points ahead of Black Dragons (BD). BD can still escape relegation if they miraculously manage to win their game against FaZe this week, but based on past results, it is more likely that they will be left to be auto-relegated. Between NiP and paiN, however, little stands. To secure safety, all NiP has to do is equal paiN’s result against BKG, but may find the pressure strong as Immortals is gunning for the LAN spot if Liquid beats oNe.
With so much uncertainty, there is one thing certain -- you cannot miss Week 14’s LATAM games.
Europe (EU):
Last but not least, Europe provided viewers with possibly the most entertaining single day of Season 8 so far in a series of top-notch games. Millennium -- with the organisation soon to shut down and teams to be released -- recorded a 6-4 win over Chaos as a start. However, few could have predicted the next game’s results as G2 Esports suffered their first loss of the season, with the new team of their old organisation, PENTA Sports, defeating them 6-4. Following that, it was clear that BiBoo’s decision to step down had hurt Team Vitality as his old side was forced to play with aPPROX, and fell 6-4 to auto-relegated side Supremacy. Capping things, though, would be a game many would consider to be the best of Season 8. Mock-it Esports held Team Secret to a 5-5 draw in a match where both teams played their absolute best, and shared the spoils in a fair result with no team looking to have the edge.
G2 Esports, while losing their first match of the season, still stay in first place. On the other hand, Team Secret misses out on their chance to go from third second, with Mock-it holding firm in that position, and instead drops to fourth place as Millenium’s win pushed the majority-French side up to third place -- tied on points with Mock-it. The rest of the table sees no change in positioning, but does confirm that Chaos is safe from relegation, and that Team Vitality will be forced to play in the relegation playoffs.
Next week, Millenium and Mock-it will be going for broke -- a win for either side will see the victor through to LAN. However, Secret will be keeping a close eye on the matchup for if the two teams draw -- and they are able to beat Chaos -- it will be their side going to Rio de Janeiro.
Don’t miss all the exciting games next week on our official Twitch channel, and be sure to share your predictions with us on Twitter!
