ESL faves flop as early upsets wreak havoc heading into Pro League playoffs

Reigning ESL Pro League champions MOUZ have shockingly exited Season 20 without a playoff appearance following a less-than-impressive group stage this week.

In doing so, their exit—combined with several other upsets in groups—has meant one-half of the finals bracket is stacked with top squads. MOUZ’s near defeat in their opener against Aussie CS2 minnows Rooster was put down to an off day, but instead, it should have been a precursor to what came next. The champs dropped their upper bracket series to Brazilian squad Imperial before back-to-back losses against Complexity ended their title defense early.

MOUZ won both Season 18 and 19 of EPL and were early favorites to challenge for a top-four spot after a solid patch of form over the past few months that included strong finishes at IEM Cologne and the Esports World Cup. Instead, they’ve been sent packing and will need to pick up the pieces ahead of their next appearance at IEM Rio.

The defeat to Complexity, coupled with M80’s shock upper bracket victory in Group C and Team Spirit’s mid-bracket fight in Group B meant a wild CS2 playoffs draw that has seen the likes of Spirit, FaZe, Liquid, G2, and NAVI (five of the top seven teams still remaining) lined up on one side of the bracket. On the flip side, French squad Vitality awaits in the EPL quarterfinal on the other side of the bracket with M80 and, seemingly, has a far easier run to the final.

The format for EPL’s playoffs sees four pathways to the quarters, with each path including a ranked team seeded from each group. As a result, while the bracket makes sense on paper, the earlier upsets have thrown a spanner in the works leading to one of the most stacked finals brackets in recent memory. The playoffs begin tomorrow Sept. 17, and with teams outside the top 10 eager to make a mark as the season draws on, no one should be underestimated.

Performance at EPL matters given there are just a few top-level events between now and the Shanghai Major RMRs, where we’ll determine which professional teams get to appear at the pinnacle CS2 tournament in late November.