Season 5 of North American ESL Pro League has almost come to a close, and Week 9 action followed a very similar pattern to the rest of the season. Not much movement was made in the top portion of the standings overall, but Misfits did manage to crack into the top six with a strong week.
Misfits went 4-0 across two series to catapult itself all the way into the top portion of the standings. In its first series against Renegades, the teams started off on Train with Misfits flexing its muscles to the tune of a 15-5 lead after 20 rounds. Renegades then woke up with 10 straight round wins on the CT-side to force overtime. Despite the scare, Misfits bounced back in OT to take a 19-17 win. The series transitioned over to Mirage in Game 2, where Misfits managed to put together a strong performance for the entirety of the match, finishing with a dominating 16-6 win to complete the sweep.
That wasn't it for Misfits, though, as it closed out the week with a second series against compLexity Gaming on Thursday. The first game was on Cache, with compLexity looking poised after a 2-0 start on the CT-side. It turned out to be short-lived; Misfits found another level and won 16 straight round wins to close out the map with a 16-2 win. Moving onto Train for Game 2, things ended up being a bit closer despite how lopsided the first half was. Misfits dominated on the CT-side with a 10-5 score going into the break. compLexty won a few rounds in the second half, but it wasn't near enough to overcome the momentum of Misfits in its 16-9 win. With a whopping 12 points on the week, Misfits have now set up for a strong finish to the regular season.
While technical issues with the latest update to the game forced most of the matches on Tuesday to be postponed, including the highly-anticipated Team Liquid vs. Cloud9 matchup, Cloud9 still saw some action later on in the week. The team actually had the opportunity to draw even with SK Gaming at the top of the standings, but that was not in the cards.
Cloud9 and Luminosity Gaming started off on Train with Cloud9 winning the pistol round before LG took the next five rounds for a 5-1 lead. While Cloud9 managed to tie things up at five, the rest of the game was dominated by LG, which took 11 of the next 12 rounds for a 16-6 victory. Seemingly spurned by the poor showing to close the first game, C9 rushed out to an impressive 12-0 lead to start Game 2 on Inferno. LG tried to muster up some sort of offense in the second half, but C9, led by a 21/14 KD from Jake "Stewie2k" Yip, easily took the map with a 16-6 win of its own.
Team Liquid and Immortals also matched up this week in another pretty close series. Starting off on Cobblestone, Liquid was absolutely dominant, and Immortals didn't provide much resistance in a 16-3 win for Liquid. Game 2 on Inferno was a complete 180 for the Brazilian squad, who rushed out to a 9-1 lead after the first 10 rounds of the game. Liquid battled back to within one round at 10-9, but Immortals closed the map on a 6-0 run for a 16-9 win that split the series.
With just one week left in the regular season, things are still set up for a tight finish in the upper echelons of the standings. SK (51 points) is holding tight at the top, while Cloud9 (48 points) and Immortals (48 points) are jockeying for position close on the Brazilian's heels. Liquid (45 points), NRG Esports (42 points) and Misfits (42 points) round out the top six. The league will take a break for a week because of Intel Extreme Masters Sydney from May 3-7, with Week 10 picking up on May 9 at 8 p.m. ET with Counter Logic Gaming taking on OpTic Gaming.