American Tragedy on day two of ESL Pro League Season 15 Group D
The second day of Group D of ESL Pro League Season 15 has wrapped up, with Complexity continuing to go winless in Germany after being taken down 2-1 by AGO. Meanwhile, Evil Geniuses were bested by NAVI, getting stomped on the first map and having their comeback trounced on the second map, seeing the CIS squad win 2-0.
The first matchup of day two saw Complexity face off against AGO, with the former eager to secure their first win of the group after a sour loss to Heroic yesterday. Although the series began on the Polish side’s pick of Dust2, it was Johnny "JT" Theodosiou's men who came into the map swinging, posting a stalwart defense to help spearhead the squad to an overpowering 12-3 lead by the switch. Once the second half got underway, it quickly looked like the map would soon be put to bed, with Complexity negating an AGO pistol-round victory with three rounds of their own to reach match point. Unfortunately for JT and co.,the Poles soon began to mount a comeback, adding seven consecutive rounds to their tally to stay alive in the map. Despite this, Complexity's overpowering showing in the first half proved to be too difficult for AGO to overcome, and the North American side soon found the lone round they needed to take Dust2 16-11 and lead 1-0 in the series.
The second map of the affair took the two sides to Ancient, where AGO started their CT-side on the stronger foot, snatching the pistol before adding two rounds to the board to run up an early lead. Complexity soon answered back, winning four back-to-back rounds of their own thanks to strong heroics from Michael "Grim" Wince on the attack. The map then descended into a back-and-forth affair, seeing both sides exchanging rounds with Complexity managing to barely come out on top, leading by just one round at the turn of the half. Complexity then began their defensive effort with a sense of conviction, flawlessly taking the first two rounds of the half to get the ball rolling. However, AGO quickly negated the North American's ideal start by going on an eight-round tear to easily reach match-point and leave JT's men scrambling to try and send Ancient to overtime. A one-round statement from Complexity did raise the idea of a possible comeback, but AGO soon dashed those hopes, securing the final round they needed to take Ancient 16-11 and send the series to a third and final map.
The third and final map of the series took place on Vertigo where AGO soon established themselves firmly in the driver's seat, rapidly drumming up a 5-1 lead to start the map. Despite the initial deficit, Complexity quickly found themselves clawing themselves back into the half, bringing the map to an even 5-5 scoreline. The remainder of the half was firmly on AGO's side, with the Poles winning four out of five rounds to head into their CT-side with a 9-6 advantage. The beginning of the second half initially looked bright for JT's men, with Complexity winning the first three rounds to once again tie the score. However, things then began to look bleak for Complexity, with AGO managing to post a five round spree, surging ahead with victory well within their grasp. Complexity did post a few rounds to the board to stay alive a little longer, but this only delayed the inevitable, with AGO winning the final round on the back of an eco-round to snatch Vertigo 16-12 and win the series 2-1.
AGOComplexity| AGO |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Maciej 'F1KU' Miklas |
63 - 57 | +6 | 89.8 | 69.5% | 1.16 |
| Łukasz 'mwlky' Pachucki |
57 - 61 | -4 | 79.2 | 73.2% | 1.06 |
| Damian 'Furlan' Kislowski |
54 - 55 | -1 | 66.9 | 76.8% | 1.06 |
| Roland 'ultimate' Tomkowiak |
56 - 56 | +0 | 63.0 | 70.7% | 0.98 |
| Eryk 'leman' Kocęba |
48 - 61 | -13 | 66.8 | 63.4% | 0.86 |
| Complexity |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Paytyn 'junior' Johnson |
61 - 51 | +10 | 74.7 | 76.8% | 1.17 |
| Ricky 'floppy' Kemery |
58 - 52 | +6 | 84.2 | 79.3% | 1.16 |
 Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou |
53 - 63 | -10 | 82.5 | 72.0% | 1.07 |
| Michael 'Grim' Wince |
64 - 63 | +1 | 84.7 | 67.1% | 1.07 |
 Justin 'FaNg' Coakley |
52 - 52 | +0 | 56.8 | 69.5% | 0.95 |
The second matchup did not get off to the same competitive foot as the previous match. Despite Natus Vincere playing with Daniil "headtr1ck" Valitov in place of the IGL Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhailov, the Ukrainian organization jumped out to a quick 6-1 lead after converting the pistol and winning the second gun round. Evil Geniuses' Jake "Stewie2k" had led the team to win their first gun round of the map, but was unable to inspire the team to more. The slow start didn't help them and the North Americans were unable to find success at any point on their own map pick. The uninspiring first half came to a close with a 13-2 scoreline in favor of Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev's team before finishing out 16-2.
The following map, Dust2, was picked by NAVI as s1mple said in a post-map interview that it made headtr1ck more comfortable. It was little surprise that the second map started in a similar manner to the first, with NAVI getting off to another 6-1 start. Evil Geniuses were unable to do much in the first half against the onslaught, however, they were able to double their round win score of the previous map and start to build some momentum towards the end. After finishing the first half with a 11-4 scoreline, Evil Geniuses seemed much more comfortable on their offense despite leaving a massive gap in an attempted smoke wall. No, they didn't win the round. Despite the initial faults, the scores inched closer together with Evil Geniuses pulling it within two rounds at 12-10. However, once Natus Vincere took hold of their economy, they shut down the American side and closed it out 16-10.
Natus VincereEvil Geniuses| Natus Vincere |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev |
45 - 19 | +26 | 109.6 | 88.6% | 1.79 |
| Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy |
42 - 26 | +16 | 110.4 | 86.4% | 1.66 |
| Daniil 'headtr1ck' Valitov |
37 - 18 | +19 | 76.0 | 88.6% | 1.40 |
 Ilya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy |
30 - 21 | +9 | 72.9 | 86.4% | 1.27 |
| Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov |
32 - 22 | +10 | 68.8 | 86.4% | 1.25 |
| Evil Geniuses |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov |
24 - 33 | -9 | 61.9 | 59.1% | 0.84 |
| Timothy 'autimatic' Ta |
26 - 39 | -13 | 67.9 | 65.9% | 0.82 |
| Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte |
22 - 37 | -15 | 54.7 | 50.0% | 0.61 |
| William 'RUSH' Wierzba |
21 - 41 | -20 | 54.3 | 61.4% | 0.60 |
| Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip |
13 - 37 | -24 | 48.7 | 47.7% | 0.49 |
Tomorrow, Complexity and Evil Geniuses will look to stop their skids as they face off against stronger opponents. Evil Geniuses will be fighting with the Danes of Heroic and Complexity will be paired up against CIS heavyweights Natus Vincere, albeit a Natus Vincere utilizing a stand-in.
HeroicEvil Geniuses will start off as the second match of the day tomorrow, starting at 10:00AM, while Complexity will be the last game of the day, slated to start at 01:30PM.
