ESL Pro League Season 16 Group C Recap

By far the most messed up group in the competition so far

Trust a group containing the likes of MOUZ, Astralis, and ENCE to give us the most surprises in the tournament so far. This group was full of bizarre mess-ups, ridiculous comebacks, and more eco round wins than one can wrap their heads around. If you haven’t been following the games, you’ll understand why we’re saying so in just a few moments.

Group C Day 3, 4, and 5 Results 

If you’d like to refresh your memory about the first two days of play for Group C, you can do so here.

The third day began with the most shocking of results as HEET defeated once-mighty Astralis 2-1. Subsequently, Astralis’ rival Heroic brought down a high-flying Complexity in straight games, before MOUZ dashed the hopes of a lackluster ENCE.

The next day, HEET showed some real quality by taking a map off of Heroic, but the Danes managed to hold on and win the tie 2-1. The same result was true of MOUZ vs COL, with the European side taking the win. The day ended with Astralis keeping their dreams alive with a clean sweep of ENCE.

On the final day, Heroic narrowly defeated Astralis to kick their rivals out of the contest, and COL showed great resolve to destroy ENCE’s chances 2-0. Meanwhile, MOUZ came back from 1-0 down to emerge triumphant with a reverse sweep.

Final Group C Table 

MOUZ secured the top spot in the group by a round difference of just 6, with Heroic excruciatingly close behind but second nevertheless. They were followed by Complexity, who made it through despite having a negative round difference — becoming the first team to do so since they themselves back in Pro League 14. It was another bitter disappointment for Astralis, and the four-time Major winners will have a lot of introspection to do and — quite possibly — changes to make. ENCE and HEET brought up the rear of the group with one win each.

ESL Pro League Season 16 Recap — Group C

Now to dive a little deeper into the results that shocked the CSGO community. 

Day 3

Astralis vs HEET was a hard lesson in just how far the once-imperious clan has fallen. Not to take away from Alexandre “bodyy” Pianaro and Aurélien “afro” Drapier, who carried their team to a 16-12 win on Dust 2. The second map saw Astralis come back strong, with Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth and Benjamin “blameF” Bremer helping the side to a 16-10 victory. However, HEET fought back on Nuke, with afro undoing the hard work of Asger “farlig” Jensen to take his team to an unlikely 16-14 triumph. 

The second game saw Heroic outclassing COL to prevail 16-9 and 16-10 on Inferno and Ancient respectively. It was an all-round team effort that won them the first map, with very little to separate each player’s performance, but Casper “cadiaN” Møller was the undisputed hero of the second with an HLTV rating of 1.73. 

ENCE put up a fantastic fight against MOUZ on Mirage, losing 16-13 with Paweł “dycha” Dycha almost equalling David ”frozen” Čerňanský’s performance. On Overpass, however, MOUZ absolutely devastated their opponents, with Jon “JDC” de Castro’s insane 1.98 and frozen’s 1.73 HLTV ratings speaking volumes about their 16-3 stomp.

Day 4 

HEET once again showed up strong with a 16-11 win over Heroic on Vertigo. The Danish side had much better performances on paper with René “TeSeS” Madsen fragging the hardest, but afro was brilliant for the French squad once again. Heroic then struck back with 16-9 and 16-12 wins on Overpass and Nuke respectively, with cadiaN and Rasmus “sjuush” Beck being excellent as usual.

In the second game, Justin ”FaNg” Coakley was back in domination mode as he carried MOUZ to a 16-11 victory on Overpass, but COL took Ancient 16-12 in convincing fashion with Ricky ”floppy” Kemery and Johnny ”JT” Theodosiou being the chief catalysts of their win. Despite this effort, however, MOUZ bulldozed their opponents 16-7 on Inferno to win the series as frozen starred with a massive 1.88 HLTV rating.

Finally, ENCE were decent on Mirage but couldn’t prevent a close loss to Astralis. It was dycha who stepped up once again, but he couldn’t outdo the dual effort of Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke and farlig. Dust 2 was a similar story, but this time the Finnish organization were beaten 16-11 with blameF on top for the Danes.

Day 5

Astralis vs Heroic has become a scintillating rivalry over the last couple of years, and this match showed exactly why. Strong performances from blameF and k0nfig gave their team a 19-17 win on Overpass despite TeSeS and Martin “stavn” Lund playing brilliantly. Sadly for Astralis fans, Heroic took the last two maps — Inferno and Nuke — 16-12 and 16-13, with sjuush and TeSeS outscoring others once again. 

With ENCE’s hopes hanging on by a thread, the players were understandably jittery, and although they put up a very good fight, COL prevailed. They won Overpass 16-11 with Michael ”Grim” Wince and Ricky ”floppy” Kemery leading the charge. Grim once again stepped up on Nuke to undermine the amazing performance of Spanish star Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia and win the map 16-14.

Lastly, HEET took Ancient from MOUZ 19-16 to show the world they weren’t as weak as they had previously been assumed to be, as Pierre “Ex3rcice” Bulinge and afro played their hearts out. Undeterred, MOUZ came back to win Inferno 16-12 and Vertigo 16-9. Star player frozen was excellent in both, but JDC secured the top spot on the final map. 

Stay tuned for more CSGO content, including recaps of Group D once their matches get under way. Plus you’ll find more game guides, esports news, CS:GO betting tips, and more here on ESTNN.