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ESL Pro League Season 21 Stage 2: Teams, Fixtures and Predictions
The Stage 1 of ESL Pro League Season 21 concluded yesterday, with only 8 out of the 16 competing teams surviving and qualifying for the next stage of competition.
Starting tomorrow, 8 directly invited teams will join the aforementioned qualified teams for another 16-teams Swiss system competition. Only 8 that survive the grueling stage make it to the Playoffs and compete for the the ESL Pro League Season 21 title.
ESL Pro League Season 21 Stage 2: Teams, Fixtures and Preview
Similar to the Stage 1 of the competition, the Stage 2 of will feature a 16 team Swiss system bracket. These teams competing are as follows:
- Directly Invited Teams
- Qualified Teams
The fixtures for the first round of ESL Pro League S21 Stage 2 are as follows:
- Team Spirit vs. TYLOO
- Team Vitality vs. MIBR
- Natus Vincere vs. SAW
- MOUZ vs. FURIA
- G2 Esports vs. paiN Gaming
- The MongolZ vs. GamerLegion
- Eternal Fire vs. 3DMax
- Team Falcons vs. Team Liquid
Only 8 out of these 16 teams will qualify for the final stage of competition. The Playoffs of the competition will feature a single elimination bracket with only one team winning it all.
ESL Pro League Season 21 Stage 2 Predictions
With only 8 teams making it out of the grueling swiss stage, the competition only gets intense. The teams that qualified through the first stage will take this as an opportunity to defeat big names and rack up as many VRS points as they can before the major comes around.
That said, it will be hard to make a case for these teams to go through to the next stage. With all games being Bo3s, only the best teams can qualify for the Playoffs.
Our predictions for the teams that qualify for the Playoffs are as follows:
3-0 Teams
Team Vitality
The safest bet to not only get out of the group stage but win the tournament, Team Vitality are a force to be reckoned with. The ropz acquisition puts them as an automatic favorite in every competition. With the team synergizing better with time, Team Vitality will remain the favorite to win any upcoming tournament.
Team Spirit
Seeing Team Spirit as a favorite is no surprise. With donk at the forefront of the team, they are an even match to Team Vitality. While they did lose Katowice to Team Vitality, they will use the EPL as their revenge tournament.
With the form Team Spirit is in, they are the second favorite to win the tournament. Especially if the team keeps supporting donk to do what he does best, Team Spirit will be a juggernaut that won’t be stopped easily before the finals.
3-1 Teams
Natus Vincere
The former best team in the world, Natus Vincere have not yet found their footing this year. Irrespective, their strong fundamentals, supplemented by their amazing coach, makes them an easy choice to qualify for the Playoffs.
Natus Vincere’s real struggle starts in the Playoffs, where they have faltered the last two times after getting eliminated by Team Spirit in the semifinals.
MOUZ
MOUZ’s decision of letting go of Siuhy is extremely questionable, but their performance at Cluj-Napoca instills confidence in the MOUZ fans. While the competition is much tougher ahead, they will face no problem taking down teams that they defeated in the last tournament to qualify for the Playoffs.
G2 Esports
Despite losing NiKo to Falcons, G2 Esports did not look terrible, largely because of m0nesy and malbsMD. But they need to step up their performance if they want to win a tournament in the upcoming days. That said, they still are an easy choice to make it through to the Playoffs.
For Playoffs, however, it will require their youngsters to step up massively to match against the tournament favorite in Team Vitality and Team Spirit.
3-2 Teams
The MongolZ
Now the official national team of Mongolia, The MongolZ has brought recognition to Mongolian Counter-Strike. They are always a good choice to make a deep run in the tournament. Despite their earlier than expected exit from Cluj-Napoca, The MongolZ must be motivated after the recent development and will be a strong contender to make it to the playoffs and perhaps even top 4.
Team Falcons
In their previous tournament, NiKo carried Team Falcons to a Grand Finals where they lost to MOUZ. But if they continue to rely on NiKo, it’d be a hard road for Team Falcons. Irrespective, they are a strong contender to make it out of the Swiss stage. Unfortunately, they will likely end their tournament with another top-8 finish, unless more of the Falcon players do what they are supposed to.
Eternal Fire
The last team that will make it according to us is Eternal Fire. While Team Liquid has a better VRS standing, Eternal Fire’s experience and momentum will help them make a deeper run than Team Liquid.
During the first stage, Eternal Fire only struggled against TYLOO, who are another surprising Asian contenders, but the experience and skills on the Turkish side reigns supreme, giving them an edge over their competition.
ESL Pro League Season 21 Stage 2 Schedule and Where to Watch
Similar to the first stage, the second stage will feature five rounds. The schedule for the rounds are as follows:
- March 7th - Round 1
- March 8th - Round 2
- March 9th - Round 3
- March 10th - Round 4
- March 11th - Round 5
ESL will broadcast Stage 2 on Twitch, YouTube, and their website. The streams can be found here:
- A Stream
- YouTube | Twitch | ESL Website
- B Stream
- YouTube | Twitch | ESL Website
Follow ESL Pro League S21 on Strafe for live score, latest news and more.
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Featured Image Credits: ESL Twitter
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