North America struggles on day one of ESL Pro League Season 15 Group D
The first day of ESL Pro League Season 15 Group D has come to a close, seeing Complexity and Evil Geniuses both falter in their starting matches. This is far from the ideal start and both sides will need to turn it up a notch if they're to join their North American compatriots in Liquid in the playoffs.
Complexity kicked off their EPL campaign with a match against Heroic, one of the stronger opponents in the group. The series started on Complexity's pick of Ancient, where the squads began the first half by trading a series of rounds back-and-forth, which led to a tied 5-5 scoreline at one point. The back-and-forth nature of the half continued, and ultimately, Heroic narrowly edged out Complexity for the 8-7 lead at the half. A pistol round win for Complexity looked to help get their second half on the right foot, but Complexity would only win one more additional round until Heroic posted a monstrous eight-round streak on their T-side to steal away Complexity's pick 16-9.
Heroic looked to keep their momentum up heading into their pick of Overpass, and that they did, posting a 5-1 lead early in the map. Complexity were not deterred by this, as they began to claw their way back into the game with seven rounds of their own, finding themselves leading 8-7 going into the second half. Complexity took the second pistol and the subsequent round to further enhance their lead, but Heroic quickly answered back with two rounds of their own to keep the North Americans honest. This saw the return of the scrappy back-and-forth nature seen in the first half of the previous map, with both squads unable to string together more than three rounds in a row. In the end, despite a strong effort on the T-side from Justin "FaNg" Coakley, Heroic narrowly came out on top in this streaky affair, taking the map 16-14 and the series 2-0.
ComplexityHEROIC| Complexity |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Justin 'FaNg' Coakley |
44 - 40 | +4 | 87.2 | 72.7% | 1.13 |
 Ricky 'floppy' Kemery |
44 - 43 | +1 | 89.0 | 65.5% | 1.08 |
| Paytyn 'junior' Johnson |
35 - 32 | +3 | 61.1 | 63.6% | 0.99 |
| Michael 'Grim' Wince |
28 - 46 | -18 | 63.5 | 63.6% | 0.80 |
 Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou |
15 - 46 | -31 | 40.7 | 50.9% | 0.51 |
| HEROIC |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Casper 'cadiaN' Møller |
56 - 32 | +24 | 96.6 | 69.1% | 1.48 |
| Martin 'stavn' Lund |
47 - 35 | +12 | 86.1 | 74.5% | 1.26 |
| Ismail 'refrezh' Ali |
39 - 32 | +7 | 77.7 | 80.0% | 1.18 |
| René 'TeSeS' Madsen |
36 - 35 | +1 | 73.3 | 67.3% | 1.07 |
| Rasmus 'sjuush' Beck |
28 - 34 | -6 | 63.5 | 70.9% | 0.91 |
The second North American matchup of the day saw Evil Geniuses square off against Astralis, where the two teams descended to Evil Geniuses’ pick of Vertigo to get their Group D campaigns underway. The North Americans started on the back foot, fumbling their T-side pistol-round in a 1v3 versus Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke before losing the ensuing five rounds to start the map trailing 0-6. Evil Geniuses did manage to find their footing in the latter stages of the first half, with a fortunate round win on the back of a force-buy allowing the side to add another three rounds to the board. Alas, Astralis' strong defense endured, and the side convincingly managed to close out the half with two more rounds added to their score to lead 11-4 at the break. Once the second half kicked off, the game descended into one characterized by back-and-forth skirmishes, with both sides adding two and three-round sprees with neither team able to break away. Unfortunately for the Americans, the initial deficit would prove to be too steep to overcome, and Astralis soon posted the final round they needed to take Vertigo 16-9 to lead 1-0 in the series.
The second map of the matchup took place on Overpass with Evil Geniuses leading on the CT-side to start the map, posting the pistol-round before following up with two additional rounds. However, the Astralis-machine quickly woke up, winning round after round until they eventually lead 5-4 midway through the half. From then onwards, the remainder of Evil Geniuses' defensive effort only saw sporadic resistance, with a meager two rounds being added before Astralis rounded out the half with a semi-comfortable 9-6 lead. Evil Geniuses began the second half in a position to launch the comeback after securing their second pistol-round and converting the round after. However, the roster quickly began to crumble, with an uninspiring T-side by Evil Geniuses seeing the team lose seven straight rounds. This saw Astralis easily cruise to victory, winning 16-8 to go 1-0 up in Group D.
AstralisEvil Geniuses| Astralis |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kristian 'k0nfig' Wienecke |
49 - 32 | +17 | 106.4 | 85.7% | 1.64 |
| Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander |
42 - 33 | +9 | 86.0 | 67.3% | 1.29 |
| Benjamin 'blameF' Bremer |
32 - 24 | +8 | 79.2 | 77.6% | 1.18 |
| Asger 'Farlig' Jensen |
34 - 25 | +9 | 65.8 | 75.5% | 1.09 |
| Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth |
26 - 27 | -1 | 71.9 | 73.5% | 1.01 |
| Evil Geniuses |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte |
40 - 35 | +5 | 96.7 | 67.3% | 1.23 |
 Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov |
27 - 38 | -11 | 63.9 | 67.3% | 0.84 |
| William 'RUSH' Wierzba |
25 - 36 | -11 | 66.1 | 61.2% | 0.78 |
| Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip |
26 - 40 | -14 | 59.3 | 55.1% | 0.67 |
| Timothy 'autimatic' Ta |
23 - 36 | -13 | 56.1 | 59.2% | 0.66 |
As far as tomorrow's matchups go, Complexity and Evil Geniuses will be squaring off against drastically different opponents. Complexity will be tussling with Polish side AGO, the lowest-ranked team in the group, whereas Evil Geniuses will be paired up against CIS heavyweights Natus Vincere, albeit a Natus Vincere utilizing a stand-in.
Complexity vs 
AGO
Evil Geniuses vs 
Natus Vincere
Complexity will start off as the first match of the day tomorrow, starting at 06:30AM, while Evil Geniuses will be the last game of the day, slated to start at 01:30PM.
