ESL Polish Championship. New leader in Group B. Other teams with no chance of advancement

Thursday evening at the ESL Polish Championship was focused around the competition in Group B, although one overdue match from Group A was played first. Polish Counter-Strike fans had the whole evening planned and a total of four matches to watch.

ESL Polish Championship. 8th round

AGO 16:9 LODIS (Ancient)

AGO, as a definite favorite, could strengthen itself in the leader’s chair by points. LODIS, in turn, needed them to keep their hopes of advancing to the play-offs at all. Extremely different situations, but the goal is the same – to win.

From the very beginning, AGO showed that it was confident and could not be outclassed by younger colleagues. Already in the first half the differences became clear. AGO played very solid in defense, from which LODIS bounced off like a wall. In fact, each of the “Hawks” rose to the occasion, not standing out from the rest of the team. On the opposite side, Jan “POLO” Pole doubled up and tripled, but the work of the LODIS sniper was insufficient.

After switching sides, the match got a bit better, because although AGO scored 14 points, LODIS, backed to the wall, started to play for life. The attempt to return was going really well for him, but it was stuck on 9 points – ironically, AGO broke with an economic round and a quick departure without much philosophy. “Hawks” achieved their goal, although one can have objections to the style. LODIS, in turn, has no chance of getting out of Group A. The last two matches will be played purely honorably.

MAD DOG’S PACT 16:9 ThunderFlash (Ancient)

Definitely the most interesting match of the 8th round. PACT is having a great period and is increasingly shortening the distance to PALOMA. A win over ThunderFlash would even allow him to jump into the leader’s seat. Only “Pioruny” also have their goals, and they haven’t been doing so well lately, so they still can’t feel confident in the top three.

Again Ancient and again a brilliant start from the defensive side, which was played first by PACT. Gaining a two-digit number of points came surprisingly easily to the anti-terrorists. ThunderFlash tried to break through with its fast, aggressive attacks, but it was quite slow. The younger team had to look for their hopes in the second half.

More esports content on

Her start heralded a chance for a comeback, as TF won the pistol round and the next two rounds. PACT, however, patiently waited for its moment. The trio of Łukasz “aziz” Ka³kowski, Bartosz “bnox” Niebisz and Sebastian “fr3nd” Ku¶nierz led him to take over the initiative. Each of them exceeded 20 eliminations. Gradually, gaps appeared in the TF’s defense – the economy collapsed, and each subsequent point came with great difficulty. PACT didn’t need much to close the game thanks to a first-half advance. The win over ThunderFlash gave them the lead in Group B, although PALOMA will still have their say on this topic.

Illuminar Gaming 16:7 PGE Turow Zgorzelec (Vertigo)

Both teams have a lot of games to make up for and this is their hope in the ESL Polish Championship. Illuminar and Turów have been playing hopelessly so far, so it was necessary to immediately make up for the losses to the top. Three points one way or the other can make a huge difference in the end.

Illuminar went strong in the match. Supposedly, Turów was creating specific opportunities, but he couldn’t turn them into points. Thanks to this, it was IHG that gradually extended its lead. To a large extent, thanks to Kacper “gRusza” Gruszeczka, Turów managed to salvage something from the first half. However, the loss of five points did not inspire optimism.

The lifeline could have been a pistol round won after switching sides. And indeed Turów managed to grab it, but he did not fully use its leading potential. The “turns” ran into the enemy’s force, hitting an inclined plane. The initiative immediately passed to Illuminar, which gave only one point to the rivals until the end.

UNGENTIUM 16:14 PGE Turow Zgorzelec (Ancient)

At the bottom of Group B, it’s not quiet yet, because UNGENTIUM also reached Turów on the server. For the third time on Thursday evening, the spectators had the opportunity to watch the match on Ancient. This map clearly appeals to Polish teams more and more.

This time quite exceptionally the entry into the match was balanced. UNGENTIUM allowed itself a slight escape, but Turów quickly stopped it, and the whole half was finished with a brilliant ace by Adrian “kadziu” Lis. Only one point separated the teams at the break.

Changing the pages was initially for the better UNGENTIUM. Again, however, Turów did not let his rival relax for long. The score was even again and the teams started to go head to head. However, “Tury” devoted a lot of effort to catch up with the enemy, which also did not allow for the stabilization of the economy. Therefore, when UNGENTIUM has already won a round in attack, the finances of the counter-terrorists have completely collapsed. For a moment, Turów was saved by a spectacular force, but after a full 30 rounds, it was UNGENTIUM that could enjoy a full set of points, practically destroying Turow’s faint hopes of a hypothetical promotion to the play-offs.

ESL Polish Championship. Group A and B tables

Group A:

1. AGO ~ 22 pts.
2. rooster fate ~ 18 pts.
3. Forsaken ~ 15pts
4. 9INE ~ 11 pts.
5. LODIS ~ 6 pts.
6. Anonymous ~ 0 pts.

Group B:

1. MAD DOG’S PACT ~ 17pts
2. PALOMA ~ 16 pts.
3. ThunderFlash ~ 13 pts.
4. UNGENTIUM ~ 6 pts.
5. Illuminar Gaming ~ 5 pts.
6. PGE Turow Zgorzelec ~ 3 points