Fnatic and Hellraisers were the better teams in Group A of ESL Pro League season nine stage two.
They competed against OpTic Gaming and Aristocracy in a round-robin format, where every match was a best-of-three series. The first and second-place teams assured a slot in the finals, which will be played in June.
Hellraisers started the campaign well by beating Aristocracy with a clean 2-0. They lost their next match to Fnatic in a close series that ended 2-1 in favor of the Swedes. Hellraisers played better against OpTic, though, and assured themselves an easy 2-0. Their best player was by their AWPer, Tomáš “oskar” Šťastný, who showed big in all the series.
Fnatic lost their first series to OpTic in three maps, but recovered with two wins in the following games. The Swedes qualified in second place after they won close matches against both Hellraisers (2-1) and Aristocracy (2-0). Freddy “KRIMZ” Johanson proved to be one of the best players for Fnatic in the group stage.
Hellraisers and Fnatic will join Astralis, FaZe, mousesports, and G2, who already qualified to the finals through the first stage of the competition.
The stage two of ESL Pro League season nine Europe will resume on May 21 with Group B. Natus Vincere, BIG, North, and Heroic will collide to see which teams advanced to the next finals.
