This article is part of our CS:GO series.
Week 2 of ESL Pro League kicks off with Group B after Group A proved to be filled with a plethora of upsets across the board.
Players to Target
Jame
To be honest, it's not easy to recommend Jame. His team renamed to Outsiders due to sanctions against the Russian Federation and his ability to travel to ESL Pro League has been in question. That said it appears that he will be playing on the main stage, and when Jame is playing, you simply have to take note of him. The AWPer has some of the best individual stats in the world and is inarguably a top fantasy play in all formats. Jame currently has a 1.19 rating over the last three months with a KAST percentage at 80.1, one of the most ridiculous tallies in the entirety of ESL Pro League.
broky
broky and FaZE Clan look to finally be establishing themselves as one of the best teams in the world, winning IEM Katowice and looking to carry that momentum into ESL Pro League. While this is one of the toughest groups available, that is more due to the presence of FaZe Clan than anything else. broky gets the chance to open the group against ENCE, and should be a top play in all formats on the AWP. Really it's hard to go wrong with anyone on FaZe, with broky, Twistzz and ropz all offering top-tier value at their respective roles on the team. The only concern for FaZe Clan is the lack of consistency this team has shown. At their best they are tournament favorites, at their worst they could miss playoffs.
Spinx
ENCE likely won't make it out of the group stage, but Spinx should still produce some top-tier numbers throughout the tournament. The rifler has a 1.20 rating over the last three months: that's a similar tally to ropz or s1mple to put in perspective how amazing his level has been. This will be a real test for Spinx as he tries to hang in the top tier of CS:GO. His opening match against FaZe Clan could be telling, but if Spinx can hang with the best he could be the sleeper of the tournament, and a huge fantasy boon in all formats. There are concerns around the team surrounding him, but ENCE do have some stable pieces that should support their superstar.
Players to Fade
Marix
Marix isn't a bad player by any means, and Sprout isn't a bad team, and yet they are still going to fill the 'Players to Fade' section simply due to how ridiculous their tournament group is. FURIA, Virtus.Pro (now known as Outsiders due to sanctions against the Russian Federation), FaZe Clan AND Vitality. The "weak" teams in Group B are ENCE and Sprout, and both would have a chance to qualify from some of the other groups. Marix is one of the weakest members on the weakest team so he falls into this section. Over the past three months Marix has a 1.00 rating and 1.06 impact rating.
drop
drop has made the move to FURIA and while that hasn't been an unsuccessful transfer, this is his first international competition with the new look lineup and drop has been struggling individually of late. In the last three months he has a 0.87 rating and only 0.69 impact rating, some truly poor tallies. FURIA also had the poor luck of the draw to be in a group with perhaps the three best teams in the world, Vitality, Virtus.Pro (now Outsiders), and FaZe Clan. drop is worth fading throughout this group and shouldn't be considered moving forward in international competition.
karrigan
Yet another victim of the curse of in-game leading, karrigan finds himself in the 'Players to Fade' section of our cheat sheet, despite his team coming off of a tournament win and looking like perhaps the best team in the world. karrigan isn't the firepower of this team and is worth fading in all fantasy formats despite the continued good form FaZe Clan have shown. Look for the in-game leader to be wildly successful and don't be surprised if he lifts the ESL Pro League trophy, but if he's in fantasy rosters it's likely fantasy managers won't be lifting their league trophies.
Stats credit to HLTV.org
