The third week of the Esports Championship Series Season 3 featured some lower-half European teams in the standings such as Fnatic, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Virtus.pro and Team Dignitas looking to chase Astralis, who leads in the EU standings. Here is how Week 3 played out.
The week began with mousesports and GODSENT on Tuesday as the Swedes of GODSENT made some noise in the first half. GODSENT put together a 10-0 lead on the T-side as mouz struggled to defend the high-powered offense. Mouz did bounce back to win the last five for a 10-5 deficit at the half. Mousesports had a better start in the second half, but it was GODSENT who took over to close Mirage 16-11. GODSENT then moved onto Cache where the Swedes looked to close out the series over mouz. However, both teams had a highly contested early start, trading rounds until mousesports broke the 5-5 tie to close the first half 10-5. GODSENT started the second half on a four-round win streak crushing the economy of mouz, but the comeback was cut short in the last seven rounds as mousesports won six out of seven to even the series 1-1 with a 16-10 win.
NiP took on a double-header Wednesday in two series versus mousesports and Fnatic. NiP went up against mouz on Cache and mouz had the upper hand early with a 13-2 lead going into the second half. However, NiP had a small run in the second half, but came up short in the 16-11 mouz win. The tides turned on Cobblestone where NiP rallied back in the first half with a 13-2 start of its own. Mousesports still had some fight left and put up eight rounds in the second half, but all NiP needed was four rounds to close Cobblestone 16-11 and even the series 1-1.
Shortly after, NiP faced its native rivals Fnatic in a tight battle on Inferno. NiP took the first round with style, but Fnatic were quick to come back for an early lead. The teams clashed in the remainder of the first half as rounds traded off with NiP eventually breaking the tie to take the half 8-7. NiP once again took the pistol round in the second half, but Fnatic retaliated with a five-round thrashing to go up 12-9. Fnatic gave up a few rounds, but still maintained the lead overall in the second half to take Inferno 16-13. After the tough loss in Game 1, NiP silenced Fnatic in the first half with a 10-5 score. Into the second half, Fnatic answered back by taking the lead and holding on until NiP made on last run late in the half before Adam "friberg" Friberg closed out the map with a double in Round 30 for the 16-14 Game 2 win.
Virtus.pro looked to finally escape the last spot in the EU standings on Thursday with mousesports in its way. Mouz quickly jumped out to a 3-0 lead and held onto that lead to take a narrow 8-7 lead into the half. Virtus.pro continued to trail in the second half, eventually trading rounds to force overtime. Mouz couldn't match the aggressive Polish Plow with a 22-18 loss to VP on Train in overtime. The series then shifted to Overpass where mouz started on the defensive side with an early lead. After taking the pistol, mouz continued to keep a gap above VP until the 15th round as where VP closed the gap and was down just 8-7 going into the break. Virtus.pro could only manage four rounds in the second half against the mouz offense for a 16-11 loss on Overpass, as mouz evened the series.
After taking down NiP 16-2 and earning a 1-1 score earlier in the week, Dignitas closed out Week 3 with a 2-0 sweep over GODSENT. The series started on Mirage with a quick first half as Dignitas wasted no time to take a 12-3 lead at the half. GODSENT started the second half by taking a few rounds away from Dignitas early, but the five rounds were short lived as Dignitas closed Mirage in four rounds for a 16-8 victory. Dignitas had the early lead to start Game 2 on Inferno, but GODSENT made its presence known early on by slowly creeping back to take an 8-7 lead in the first half. GODSENT ran out of gas in the second half, though, as Dignitas dominated in the second winning nine out of eleven rounds to close Inferno with a 16-10 win.
With Week 3 now in the books, mousesports now joins Astralis with the first place tie as FaZe Clan and NiP hold down the third and fourth spots. GODSENT took the biggest loss of the week tumbling down five spots for the last spot in the EU standings.
Week 4 will kick off May 9 at 1 p.m. ET as NiP take on Team EnVyUs followed by Virtus.pro and GODSENT at 3 p.m.