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ESL Pro League Season 18 Group B Overview: Upper Final and Last Chance Matches!

Sports Writer

Publish Date: 11/09/2023

Fact checked by: James Leeland

ESL Pro Leage BIG v ENCE

Group B’s matches on ESL Pro League Season 18 are now coming to a close. Yesterday, we prepared for the Upper Final match between ENCE and BIG, as well as a duel between MIBR and Evil Geniuses. From this game, the winner will play against Monte for the 4th spot in Group B. Let’s dive into these matches – especially the Upper Final – to see what we can get out of it.

Path to the Upper Final

The Upper Final is a stage where teams who are yet to lose face each other. As you’d imagine, the winner gets 1st place in the Group, but both will move on to the Playoffs. Instead of an elimination, this Final will only decide the seeds for the Playoffs.

Upper Semi-Finals Face-offs

To get to the Upper Finals, BIG and ENCE had to bag two wins against some of the best teams out there. Here’s what each of them had to do:

BIG

BIG started off strong by winning against Monte in the Opening Round. This Win led the team to the Upper Semi-Finals, where they faced Heroic. Looking back, the odds were definitely in Heroic’s favor, but BIG was able to get a clean 2x0 series on the Danish. So, it was now a game of patience while waiting for the final opponent.

ENCE

Just like BIG, ENCE had a pretty good start to this Group Stage, getting a 2x0 series on top of Evil Geniuses in the Opening Round. In the Upper Semi-Finals, ENCE had a bit of trouble against MIBR, but the Brazilians were not able to stop ENCE’s extreme end-game pressure.

BIG vs. ENCE – In-Depth Review

Let’s take a look at some of the encounters that these teams have had so far – which were not many – but it should give us an idea of what to expect.

Head-to-Head

ENCE and BIG have not had a lot of encounters throughout the past few seasons. In fact, only 3 maps were played between the two teams – all of which were won by ENCE.

Recent Performances

When it comes to the performance in recent games, both teams are doing well. First off, ENCE is on a 2-win streak, a number that would have been 6 if not for a recent hiccup against Vitality.

BIG, on the other hand, is actually boasting what ENCE couldn’t – a winning streak of 6 matches. Does that mean something for today’s game? Well, we couldn’t say, but it does raise a few eyebrows.

Extra Games

A few more games will go down this Sunday in Group B of ESL Pro League Season 18. The first one of the day will be between MIBR and Evil Geniuses (10:30 GMT). The winner of that match will be playing against Monte in the 4th Place Decider stage (17:30 GMT). And just as a heads up, the Upper Final will go down at 14:00, also GMT.