North American Counter Strike has been a predictable affair at ESL Pro League, and Week 5 was no exception. SK Gaming has dominated, week after week, while Cloud9 has duked it out with Team Liquid for second place. Here's how Week 5 played out.
Tuesday tipped off with the return of a familiar face: Ryan "fREAKAZOiD" Abadir. Filling in for Spencer "Hiko" Martin, who decided to step down as OpTic Gaming's in-game leader, fREAKAZOiD finished with a 36/29 KD (kills/deaths) over two games and helped OpTic earn two wins over 12th place Rush (3-11). Playing in his first competitive match in months on Inferno, fREAKAZOiD elected for a conservative, support style. He held the 'Banana' area of the map well alongside Tarik "tarik" Celik, while William "RUSH" Wierzba decimated his opponents at the initial point of contact, thriving in an "entry-fragging" role. Don't expect fREAKAZOiD to remain on OpTic long, however, as he has made it clear that he was simply on loan from Echo Fox as a stop-gap.
Thanks to the community teamwork of Echo Fox, Freakazoid will be a stand in for the #OpTicCSGO match tonight.
— OpTic Gaming™ (@OpTicGaming) March 22, 2017
Team Liquid's roster is falling apart. Amidst rumors that management was very close to trading Jacob "Pimp" Winneche and Joshua "jdm64" Marzano for OpTic's RUSH and Oscar "mixwell" Cañellas, Liquid has seemingly lost all confidence during its matches. Liquid dropped both games on Wednesday against 6th place Counter Logic Gaming, who were 5-5 before winning two maps against Liquid. Star player Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski finished with a meager 33/40 KD, while jdm64 earned the least amount of kills on his team, with a 13/20 KD. After Wednesday's disheartening losses, Pimp requested a transfer from the team, and has been moved to a substitute position.
With both OpTic and Liquid shuffling its rosters around, SK Gaming offered a bit of stability for the scene on Thursday. Up against 8th place Misfits (7-7), SK breezed to two easy wins on Cobblestone and Mirage. SK's superstar Marcelo "coldzera" David went ballistic on Cobblestone, posting a remarkable 28-8 KD along with a 114.5 ADR (Average Damage per Round). Mirage was more of the same for coldzera, where he finished with a 29/11 KD and a monstrous 146.9 ADR. coldzera has long been touted as perhaps the best player in the world, and the form he's in right now should terrify teams.
We keep the undefeated streak alive!Continuamos invictos!GG WP @MisfitsGG 12-0 on #ESLProLeague#RUNSKG#VAMOSSKpic.twitter.com/OYMO6w4D71
— SK Gaming (@SKGaming) March 24, 2017
