This Wednesday, March 15, at 16:00 CET, we will face Spirit in the opening match of group D. In the last weeks, the team has been in the pracc room to prepare for ESL Pro League Season 17.
The tournament began in February and has 32 of the world's best teams competing in four groups of eight. Groups A, B, and C have already been concluded in the past three weeks. We will compete in Group D, which kicks off Wednesday, March 15. In the coming week, we will go head-to-head with the following teams:
Group D (March 15-19):
- Astralis
- Liquid
- Rare Atom
- ENCE
- ATK
- Spirit
- FORZE
- Natus Vincere
The group is pretty interesting with many quality teams - Casle
The teams will face each other in BO3 matches in a triple-elimination format. The top four teams in each group advance to the play-offs. Group winners qualify directly to the quarter-finals, second place goes to round-of-12, and third and fourth place teams will play in round-of-16. Play-offs will start Tuesday, March 21, and conclude with the grand final BO5 match on March 26.
Since the previous season of ESL Pro League, in September 2022, our team has undergone several changes. We are looking to build upon our great start to 2023, and the team is fighting for a deep run in the tournament.
Peter "casle" Ardenskjold, Coach Astralis Counter-Strike
- We have had some really productive weeks, and I am impressed by how much energy and time the players put into the work, right down to the small details.
- Nicolai and I have found a great balance, and this also goes for how we work with the performance organization and the tons of experience we can draw on. We have spent the time getting a handle on the in-game roles, what everybody expects from each other, the mental balance, and the whole structure of our way of playing and training, and although we have a lot of work to do, I think we have come a long way.
-After the direct qualification to BLAST Spring Finals and the CCT title, we were happy with the results, but at times we weren't cohesive as a team. That has been one main focus, and now we have the first real test. It's game by game, but I'm really looking forward to seeing if we can transfer the good beats from pracc to a match environment.
- The group is pretty interesting with many quality teams. The other teams probably don't quite know what they'll get from us, but we enter the tournament with a clear goal of qualification to play-offs. I feel we are in a really good place, but I will wait to make any conclusions until the group stage is over.
This week will be filled with exciting matches. Starting Wednesday, March 15, at 16:00 CET, prepare to cheer for our team!
Further match-ups will be announced daily as the tournament progresses.
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