Photo: ESL / Helena Kristiansson

Following our loss to Team Spirit in our opening match of the ESL Pro League Season 17 on Wednesday, we saw ourselves facing NAVI in the first round of the Mid Bracket. A win would see us advance to the Mid Bracket Semifinal, and a loss would result in us falling to the Lower Bracket. Here's how it went!

Our map pick, Ancient, was the first battlefield of the night. Despite the first few rounds being rather chaotic, we were off to a great start that saw us take home the first three rounds. Subsequently, our opponents and us took home rounds in succession. Eventually, we got the upper hand on our T-side and won the half with a 9-6 score.

After a short break, the second half began. Despite dominant displays from blameF and xyp9x, in particular, our CT-side on Ancient once again proved not to be our strongest side. Unfortunately, NAVI took home the first map with a 10-16 score.

Next up was NAVI's map pick, Overpass. NAVI's comeback and eventual win on Ancient did not throw us off course as we went into the second map and completely dominated our opponents! We started off the map on the CT-side, and it was nearly flawless. With a 13-2 score, we went into the second half filled with confidence. Our young star, Buzz, was nothing short of incredible on our CT-side and ended the half with an 18-5 score.

Our CT-side proved equally dominant as we quickly steamrolled over our opponents and secured a win on Overpass with a 16-3 score. With the overall score now set at 1-1, the final map, Inferno, was the decider. Despite winning the first half, NAVI came back and won the game 12-16, thus winning the entire match.

Our loss to NAVI doesn't mean that we are out of the Pro League. We play again on Saturday in a last attempt at advancing to the playoffs. Don't forget to tune in and support us! #tothestars