ESL Pro League Season 17 Group D: Rare Atom vs ENCE Preview and Predictions
| Tags: CS:GO
| Author The Old One
It’s a battle between what was assumed to be David, Rare Atom, and the team that could have been the Goliath apparent, ENCE, in Group D of ESL Pro League Season 17
On paper, ENCE were supposed to meet American superpower Team Liquid in the Upper Bracket Semifinal, not the nearly-unheard-of Rare Atom. However, the Chinese side has proven to be not just worthy of this unexpected battle, but is actually being considered the favorite to win it after having trounced the third-ranked side in the world. ENCE meanwhile looked like a bad replica of their former selves, and will have to up their game to proceed. If you’re looking to place bets on CSGO or just want to know more about this game, here’s our in-depth preview.
Rare Atom
This young team has come out of nowhere to show its immense talent. The players looked confident, the strats checked out and the mechanical skills were on point for the Chinese hopefuls. However, the team will still need to prove that what happened yesterday wasn’t a one-off fluke and that they’re the real deal. The fact that they’re going up against a weak-looking ENCE might just give Rare Atom the best chance to do this and enable them — and indeed Asia — to secure a berth in the Playoffs of a major international tournament.
Players
Liang “advent” Zhuo
- HLTV Rating: 0.87
- Impact Rating: 0.76
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 71.4%
- Average Damage Round: 62.1
- Kills Per Round: 0.56
Andrew “kaze” Khong
- HLTV Rating: 1.18
- Impact Rating: 1.22
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 73.8%
- Average Damage Round: 79.2
- Kills Per Round: 0.77
Yang “JamYoung” Yi
- HLTV Rating: 1.19
- Impact Rating: 1.17
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 74.0%
- Average Damage Round: 81.4
- Kills Per Round: 0.76
Chen “Moseyuh” Qianhao
- HLTV Rating: 1.12
- Impact Rating: 1.14
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 71.8%
- Average Damage Round: 78.4
- Kills Per Round: 0.71
Wang “Mercury” Jingxiang
- HLTV Rating: 1.18
- Impact Rating: 1.25
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 72.6%
- Average Damage Round: 82.9
- Kills Per Round: 0.76
Player to Watch
It’s hard to pick a player out of this talented bunch, but we’re going to go with the razor-sharp JamYoung, who was a treat to the eyes yesterday.
ENCE
The Finnish side has fallen on hard times. Things have gone from “ez for ENCE” to, basically, ENCE is easy, and the team needs to do something to pick themselves back up. Even with a couple of relatively high-profile recruits in the last few months, they still don’t look convincing and their results are subpar at best. Here’s to hoping ENCE gets their act together, because if they don’t, there’s a Chinese team ready to brush them aside.
Players
Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer
- HLTV Rating: 0.95
- Impact Rating: 0.96
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 69.4%
- Average Damage Round: 72.5
- Kills Per Round: 0.65
Paweł “dycha” Dycha
- HLTV Rating: 1.12
- Impact Rating: 1.15
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 70.6%
- Average Damage Round: 81.1
- Kills Per Round: 0.73
Pavle “maden” Bošković
- HLTV Rating: 1.08
- Impact Rating: 1.17
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 68.5%
- Average Damage Round: 79.3
- Kills Per Round: 0.72
Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia
- HLTV Rating: 1.16
- Impact Rating: 1.15
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 72.8%
- Average Damage Round: 74.2
- Kills Per Round: 0.72
Guy “NertZ” Iluz
- HLTV Rating: 1.10
- Impact Rating: 1.28
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 68.9%
- Average Damage Round: 85.0
- Kills Per Round: 0.77
Player to Watch
More often than not, the damage you deal matters more than how many rounds you lived or died. Recent recruit NertZ has been the most dangerous player on ENCE in that regard recently, and we’re going with him as the player to watch on this team.
ESL Pro League Season 17 Group D: Rare Atom vs ENCE Predictions
If Rare Atom plays half as well as they did on the second map yesterday, they’re in with a chance. As a result, we’re going to predict that the Chinese side will win 2-0.
Maps
Rare Atom will probably have to go for Mirage as Inferno will likely be banned, and ENCE will probably pick Ancient. The third map is up for debate, but we’re going to go with Nuke.
Score
Map 1: Rare Atom to win with ENCE <10.
Map 2: Rare Atom to win with ENCE <13.
Top Fragger
Although we tipped JamYoung as the player to watch on ENCE, we’re tipping Kaze to have the most kills at the end of the series.
Match Links
You can watch the game on either Twitch or YouTube, with coverage set to begin at 14:00 ET/13:00 CST/12:00 PT.
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