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00 Nation upset NIP: ESL Pro League Season 17 Group C recap
ESL Pro League Season 17, the bi-annual month-long CSGO event organized by ESL, kicked off on March 8th with Group C matches. The group featured eight teams: Faze Clan, Rooster, paiN Gaming, Ninjas in Pyjamas, OG, 00 Nation, Grayhound, and Team Vitality.
ESL Pro League Season 17 features a new format with 32 teams instead of 24. The teams are divided into four groups of eight each. Each group plays a round-robin format with best-of-three matches. The playoffs will be played in a double-elimination bracket with best-of-three matches until the grand final which will be best-of-five.
Top Teams:
Team Vitality made it straight into the semifinals, as they beat Faze in a thrilling 2 map saga. Vitality displayed a T-side masterclass, as they mounted a comeback from a 14-1 deficit. They pushed the map into overtime and won 19-16. Faze managed to push Map 2: Nuke into overtime as well, but Vitality came out on top again, at 19-15.
Faze Clan had not dropped a single map before the Upper Bracket Finals. They completely dominated the Aussie Roosters, and even managed to keep NIP at bay. However, Vitality proved to be too much for them to handle, as Apex and Zywoo sent them into the Round of 12.
paiN were dropped into the middle bracket by NIP, but this did not cause a setback. But they managed to win all of their following 3 games against Rooster, OG, and Grayhound to take the spot in the play-offs.
00 Nation were dropped to the Lower bracket by Grayhound. But they had their revenge matchup in the lower bracket, and won. They beat out OG to get to the Lower Bracket Finals. And they managed to best the Ninjas in Pyjamas in a 3 map odyssey to take the final spot in the Play-offs for Group C.