BESL Pro Season 1 Finals Preview

As BESL Pro (also known as Baltic eSports League), LAN finals will take place this Saturday, 26th of May, at the Ķipsala exhibition center in Riga, we thought that it’s time for us to present all the 4 teams taking part in the €4,700 event and take a look at their chances of lifting the trophy in Riga.

 

BESL Pro Season 1 regular season was a nine week competition (played out from 26th of February till 27th of April) within whom each week ten best Baltic state teams faced each other  in a two Best-of-One game series (also known as double header) fighting for the prize pool of €7,000. Each of the games rewarded teams with points based on the outcome. For a victory in regulation time a team was rewarded with 3 points, while for a victory in overtime the winning team received 2 points while losing team - 1 point.

 

After all the 9 week games had been played out the four LAN finalists had been found. First ones to acquire themselves a spot already in week 7 of the competition were Estonians of WASD Sports, followed by Lithuanians of 1337HUANIA (previously known as Team Refuse) in the week 8 of regular season. The last two teams were found during the final week of regular season play and they are - WORTEX from Estonia and SkinLordz from Latvia.

Unfortunately, last week, WASD Sports informed us that they withdraw from the competition due to it conflicting with another tourney that they want to participate in, so their place in the LAN finals is taken by the #5 regular season finisher MALCO from Latvia.

 

Carcass (1337HUANIA) will face MALCO on their home turf

 

During the LAN event the four best teams from the online stage of the competition are going to be placed in a single elimination bracket, with all the games being played as a best-of-three series. The winner of the event will not only walk away with the beautiful BESL Pro Season 1 champions trophy, but also - with the lion share of the prize pool in form of €2,000!

 

On a side note - the team that finished in the 1st place at the end of the regular season had the benefit of choosing their opponent (from the 3rd-4th place teams) in the semi-finals, meaning that the 2nd place team is going to be left facing the team from 3rd-4th place pool that was not chosen.

 

As the original 1st place regular season team WASD Sports withdrew from the competition, the ability to choose their semi-final opponents went over to the 2nd place finisher 1337HUANIA, who have chosen to play their semi-final game against newly added MALCO squad that finished their regular season run in the 5th place.

 

That sets up the second semi-final duel to be played out between Estonians of WORTEX, who finished the regular season in 3rd place, and Latvians of SkinLordz, who found themselves in the 4th place at the end of the 9 week competition.

 

For more information about the BESL Pro Season 1 LAN finals, head over to our viewer's guide, where you'll find the full schedule, prize pool distribution, and talent lineup.

 

*Statistics used are from the regular season of BESL Pro S1

**Dust2 has officially replaced Cbble in all BESL competitions

***Team Refuse are now known as 1337HUANIA

 

Regular season games between LAN finalists:

  • Week 1 - SkinLordz 2-0 WORTEX (16:5 train, 16:11 mirage)

  • Week 4 - SkinLordz 1-1 Team Refuse (4:16 inferno, 16:10 mirage)

  • Week 5 - MALCO 2-0 Team Refuse (16:11 inferno, 16:14 train)

  • Week 6 - MALCO 0-2 WORTEX (13:16 nuke, 11:16 cbble)

  • Week 7 - Team Refuse 2-0 WORTEX (16:5 cbble, 16:3 cache)

  • Week 8 - MALCO 2-0 SkinLordz (16:13 train, 19:16 mirage)

Semi-final #1

1337HUANIA

Player statistics:

  1. Eimantas “pounh” Lazickas - 82 ADR, 1.14 KDR, 52% HS, 4 clutches

  2. Edvinas “Aikas” Zemaitis - 82 ADR, 1.22 KDR, 46% HS, 8 clutches

  3. Robertas “Carcass” Mikuckis - 81 ADR, 1.01 KDR, 43% HS, 1 clutches

  4. Martynas “Butters” Juodagalvis - 80 ADR, 0.97 KDR, 33% HS, 4 clutches

  5. Titas “Haflex” Milašauskas - 79 ADR, 1.21 KDR, 39% HS, 9 clutches

 

Map statistics:

  • Cache (3-1, 75% winrate)

  • Mirage (0-1, 0% winrate)

  • Inferno (5-1, 83% winrate)

  • Train (2-2, 50% winrate)

  • Cbble (2-0, 100% winrate)

  • Overpass (1-0, 100% winrate)

  • Nuke (N/A)

 

MALCO

Player statistics:

  1. Dairis “Warden” Rupainis - 80 ADR, 1.13 KDR, 43% HS, 15 clutches

  2. Iļja “Whiskas” Rastopčins - 79 ADR, 0.96 KDR, 45% HS, 7 clutches

  3. Toms “Feagleyy” Bicāns - 76 ADR, 1.07 KDR, 58% HS, 12 clutches

  4. Sandis “ayriks” Rainskis - 75 ADR, 0.88 KDR, 52% HS, 7 clutches

  5. Daniēls “discplex” Bieziņš - 73 ADR, 0.92 KDR, 60% HS, 6 clutches

 

Map statistics:

  • Cache (N/A)

  • Mirage (2-1, 67% winrate)

  • Inferno (1-2, 33% winrate)

  • Train (4-0, 100% winrate)

  • Cbble (1-2, 33% winrate)

  • Overpass (2-1, 67% winrate)

  • Nuke (0-2, 0% winrate)

 

The first semi-final game of Baltic eSports League Season 1 LAN finals is going to feature Lithuanians of 1337HUANIA and Latvians of MALCO.

 

During the regular season clash between these two teams, MALCO pulled off a miraculous 2-0 victory leaving the Lithuanians with nothing but a disbelief of what had happened! Back then, not only were Latvians the only team that beat 1337HUANIA guys on their most played (and seemingly the best) map Inferno (16:11), but also - they managed to score another victory on the map that they themselves are still undefeated on namely Train (16:14). A fact to note here though is that these games were played back when Boo was still part of the Lithuanian squad (replaced by Carcass later on), so their results should be taken with a grain of salt.

 

Looking at the overall map pools of these teams we see that both of them are actually pretty versatile. During the regular season they both played 6 out of the 7 maps that were in the Active Duty map pool at the time with the only map that 1337HUANIA guys did not play being Nuke, while Latvians of MALCO avoiding Cache. With that in mind, it’s pretty safe to say that both of these teams share the same depth when it comes to their map pool and they both are certainly open to playing all different kinds of maps depending on who they are matched up against.

 

Another aspect to touch upon when talking about maps is the removal of Cbble and the addition of Dust2 in the Active Duty map pool. At first glance it looks like both of the teams here are affected equally from this change as both of them did like to play Cbble. Though, a crucial fact to note here is that despite MALCO liking to play Cbble, it was clearly not one of their best maps (1-2 W-L), whereas 1337HUANIA guys were undefeated on it (2-0 W-L). Additionally, a new map that has just been added to the map pool (if it is to be played) might, in theory, actually give a slight advantage to the underdog team (MALCO) as it is yet to be played out to the point of having a real META, which naturally leaves up a huge room for error in terms of results (high expectancy of an upset).

 

Talking about a possible map veto here - the first round of bans is somewhat clear, but what will happen after that is the real question to be answered here! For the sake of this theoretical veto, we assume that 1337HUANIA guys, being the higher seed here, are going to choose for MALCO to start the veto.

 

With that in mind, as we previously mentioned, the first phase bans are pretty obvious - MALCO will get rid of their usual permaban of Cache, while 1337HUANIA guys will once again skip through playing Nuke. Latvians will then pick Train as it is the map that they are still undefeated on, whereas, Lithuanians should definitely go for their bread and butter in form of Inferno, despite actually losing it to MALCO during the regular season. From the remaining maps (Mirage, Overpass, Dust2), we actually think that Latvians should be the ones banning out Dust2 as both of the remaining maps then would definitely be playable for them, whereas they can never know how prepared 1337HUANIA guys are on Dust2 compared to themselves, thus it would be a huge risk leaving it in the pool. If this does end up to be the case, then Lithuanians will round up the veto process with a ban of Mirage, leaving Overpass to be the decider (if needed). Though, we might be in for a treat if both of the teams decide upon leaving Dust2 in the pool thinking that they are prepared enough to beat their opposition!

 

If veto does end up being somewhat similar to what we predicted, then this actually looks likely to be a pretty even series! For instance - although MALCO, as previously mentioned, are still undefeated on Train, Lithuanians are definitely no strangers to the map and their regular season brawl on it ended in a 30 round derby! Similarly, the same goes for the 1337HUNIA’s map pick Inferno - despite it being their most played map with a win-loss record of 5-1, that one loss came by the hands of MALCO! Additionally to that - all three possible decider maps still suggest that there is no clear-cut favorite here in this series as they might go either way depending on who shows up and who doesn’t!

 

All in all - while factors like individual player statistics, regular season run and the status of being one of the best teams in Baltics right now does skew this match-up to be in favor of 1337HUANIA guys, the history between these teams, overall map pool and possible veto suggests that MALCO guys have a good chance of not only making this an interesting series, but also - maybe even replicating their regular season success against the Lithuanians!

Semi-final #2

WORTEX

Player statistics:

  1. Aaron “Ph1lEba” Pajula - 95 ADR, 1.28 KDR, 46% HS, 10 clutches

  2. Erik “DoisTa” Uba - 82 ADR, 1.09 KDR, 45% HS, 6 clutches

  3. Kevin “zteeek” Rohurand - 79 ADR, 1.13 KDR, 40% HS, 8 clutches

  4. Georg “feeldtzz” Kazakov - 72 ADR, 1.08 KDR, 45% HS, 7 clutches

  5. Marcus “KrassNer” Kangur - 72 ADR, 0.90 KDR, 50% HS, 4 clutches

 

Map statistics:

  • Cache (3-1, 75% winrate)

  • Mirage (3-2, 60% winrate)

  • Inferno (2-1, 67% winrate)

  • Train (0-1, 0% winrate)

  • Cbble - (3-1, 75% winrate)

  • Overpass - N/A

  • Nuke - (1-0, 100% winrate)

 

SkinLordz

Player statistics:

  1. Aivis “prelideN” Krastiņš - 95 ADR, 1.34 KDR, 41% HS, 2 clutches

  2. Reinis “hyskeee” Grīnbergs - 88 ADR, 1.33 KDR, 47% HS, 8 clutches

  3. Matīss “raw” Rajunčus - 78 ADR, 1.03 KDR, 51% HS, 4 clutches

  4. Arvis “CaptaiN” Kārkliņš - 74 ADR, 1.04 KDR, 35% HS, 1 clutches

  5. Elvis “ELVISG” Gabrāns - 73 ADR, 1.02 KDR, 55% HS, 6 clutches

 

Map statistics:

  • Cache (1-0, 100% winrate)

  • Mirage (4-1, 80% winrate)

  • Inferno (2-2, 50% winrate)

  • Train (4-4, 50% winrate)

  • Cbble - N/A

  • Overpass - N/A

  • Nuke - N/A

 

The second semi-final game of Baltic eSports League LAN finals is going to be a played between Estonians of WORTEX and Latvians of SkinLordz.

 

The regular season duel between these two teams was won by SkinLordz in a dominant 2-0 fashion! Back then Latvians came out victorious in two maps in a row with a 16-5 scoreline on Train, followed up by a 16-11 victory on Mirage. An interesting fact to note here though is that not only did this battle take place right at the beginning of the season (week 1), when WORTEX guys hadn’t found their mojo yet, but also - back then SkinLordz’s played these games with a substitute player. Similarly to the first semi-final game, while these results do impact the way we think about this match-up, they should surely not be taken as gospel!

 

If we take a look at the overall map pool of both of the teams, we immediately see that WORTEX guys stand out quite drastically with a really deep map pool. During the regular season they played 6 out of the 7 maps that were in the Active Duty map pool at the time, with the only exception being Overpass. On the other hand - SkinLordz’s map pool has been a really shallow one with only 4 out of the 7 maps being played. An interesting fact to note - the only winless map for WORTEX guys is Train, which is the one they played once against SkinLordz.

 

A factor once again take into consideration when talking about maps is how the removal of Cbble and addition of Dust2 affects both of these teams. Looking at their map pools it’s quite obvious that a change like this actually strengthens the Latvian map pool and weakens Estonian one as SkinLordz now have one less ban that they have to waste on a map that they clearly do not play, but know that their opponents do. When speaking about Dust2 being added though it’s hard to predict who’s the one being favored more (if it is to be played) as both of the teams share a similar pug-ish playstyle with things being done on-fly. With that in mind, Dust2 might be somewhat of a middle-ground for these teams, but we are yet to see our theory being confirmed.

 

Talking about a possible veto here - it’s quite obvious that Overpass is the map that none of the teams wants to play and the only question is ‘Who should be the one banning it?’. Once again, for the sake of this theoretical veto, we assume that WORTEX guys, being the higher seed here, are going to choose for SkinLordz to start the veto.

 

With that in mind, it should be a straightforward phase one ban of Nuke for the SkinLordz guys as it is the only map from the current map pool that they don’t play, but their opponents do. For the Estonians the first ban should be Train as not only they do not play it regularly, but their only game on it was a loss against their current opponents SkinLordz. Latvians will then most likely pick Mirage to be their map which was the second map they beat WORTEX on during the regular season play and is clearly one of Latvian squad’s best maps. Estonians will then answer with a pick of Cache, a map that has proven to be one of their most successful ones during the regular season play. From the remaining maps (Overpass, Inferno and Dust2), SkinLordz’s smartest choice could actually be banning Dust2 and forcing Estonians to be the ones who have to get rid of Overpass (map that neither of them plays), thus getting the decider map to be Inferno, a map that both them and WORTEX guys like to play. On a contrary, we might actually see Dust2 come into play here as it does fit both of the team play-styles and has a lot of potential for teams that rely on their star players doing individual plays.

 

If veto does end up being somewhat similar to what we predicted, then, despite WORTEX guys finishing above the Latvians in the regular season, we might actually give a slight edge to SkinLordz here as not only are Latvians favored to take their own map pick Mirage, they also have a good chance of closing out the series 2-0 as WORTEX being victorious on Cache is not a given and Latvians have always traditionally been very good on the map. If however the series does go the distance and we do see the 3rd map being played, then whatever the decider map ends up being (Inferno or Dust2), we would actually say that this is anyone’s game to take!

 

Overall - these teams are very similar! They both have clear-cut star players (based on player stats) and they both have a play-style that relies on these star players doing well. Though, when taking the factors of previous encounters and sheer amount of LAN event experience in to play, it’s does look likely that SkinLordz have a slight upper-hand here. Additionally - WORTEX’s captain zteeek has confirmed via twitter that BESL Pro LAN finals are going to be the last event that this team plays together!



During the event you’ll be able to follow all the action LIVE from the Ķipsala exhibition center on BESL Pro’s YouTube channel! The preview of the Grand Final is going to be done LIVE our analyst desk via stream!

 

Article by: Bruno ‘Gekons’ Gailītis

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