Astralis and GamerLegion bow out of ESL Pro League Season 22

Astralis and GamerLegion have become the latest teams to get eliminated from ESL Pro League Season 22. 

The Danish and Mongolian/German esports organisations were unable to win three matches during the Counter-Strike 2 event’s second stage.

While Astralis departs the tournament with a win-to-loss record of 0-3, the Danes faced some tricky opponents during Stage 2. An opening defeat to Team Falcons put the team immediately on the back foot, setting up a round-two clash against Aurora Gaming. 

Despite taking the opening map, Aurora Gaming’s superior defence proved too much for Astralis, with the Turkish side scoring a 2-1 win to place the Danish side on the verge of elimination. 

The path to Stage 3 continued to increase in difficulty, with a new yet familiar FaZe Clan standing in Astralis’ way in round three of the Swiss stage. Astralis struggled to build any sort of momentum, losing to FaZe 13-7 and 13-4 to bring an end to a tricky Pro League campaign.

Since being crowned Counter-Strike’s best team in the October Valve Regional Standings (VRS), The MongolZ has struggled to rekindle the form that saw the team win the Esports World Cup in August. Surprise defeats to HOTU and Inner Circle Esports put the Mongolian national team on the brink of a shock elimination, with a win over GamerLegion required to stay alive in Stage 2. 

The MongolZ held off a late GamerLegion resurgence on Inferno to open the series with a win, but the German organisation responded immediately with a 13-11 win on Ancient to force a decider on Nuke. 

Similar to Inferno and Ancient, The MongolZ raced to an early lead before GamerLegion started to reduce the deficit with some well-timed defensive rotations. Patient attacking play from the Mongolians made the difference in the latter stages of Nuke, winning 13-7 and the series 2-1 to remain in with a chance of making the Playoffs. 

Stage 2 of ESL Pro League Season 22 continues with the remaining teams competing in the final two rounds of the Swiss stage. The top eight teams from Stage 2 will secure a place in the Playoffs, taking place from October 10th to 12th.

Fans can tune into the action through ESL’s Twitch and YouTube channels.