ESL Pro League 15: FaZe and ENCE Win their First Playoffs Matches

Fnatic and Players have become the first two teams to be eliminated from the playoffs stage of ESL Pro League Season 15. The teams shared the 9-12th place at the event, each getting $12,000 in prize money.

The elimination stage started with the series between Fnatic and ENCE, and it was the first match for Fnatic with Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson who missed the group stage due to COVID-19. However, they lost to ENCE with a 2-0 score – 5:16 at Overpass and 16:12 at Nuke. Thus, the player travelled to Germany to play just one game.

In the day’s second match FaZe Clan faced Gambit’s roster that competes at EPL 15 as Players due to the sanctions against the Russian organization – these teams are ranked #2 and #3 by hltv in their world ranking. While FaZe started the year by winning BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2022 and IEM XVI – Katowice, their run at EPL 15 has not been so smooth, as they lost to ENCE and Vitality in the group. Yesterday they confidently won their pick, Inferno (16:4), but similarly lost at the opponents’ map, Mirage (5:16). The final map, Overpass, concluded in FaZe’s favour with a 16:9 score.

Now ENCE will face Group C winners Movistar Riders, while FaZe Clan will compete with Group D strongest team Natus Vincere – these matches will be played on April 7th and 8th, respectively.

Current Bracket:

Today the event will feature the other two rounds of 12 – first, Entropiq will face Astralis (2:30 PM UK time). It will be the team’s first match against each other since January, when Astralis lost to Entropiq (1-2) at Funspark ULTI 2021 Finals. Then, Heroic will take on Team Liquid (6:00 PM) for the first time in a recent history.

ESL Pro League Season 15 is taking place in Düsseldorf, Germany and features an $823,000 prize pool. The playoffs follows a single-elimination format and will conclude on April 10th with a best-of-five grand finale. The winner will claim $175,000 and qualify for BLAST World Final 2022.