ESL Pro League Picks, Best Bets, Predictons September 24

The ESL Pro League is heading into the last stage of the groups. Nine of twelve playoff teams have already been confirmed. Team Vitality, Fnatic, Natus Vincere, G2, FaZe Clan, and Outsiders qualified from the second group. ENCE and Astralis were eliminated. MOUZ, Heroic and Complexity moved through to the playoffs.

Neither Movistar Riders nor Evil Geniuses have performed well at the major leagues this year. The Riders were eliminated from IEM Road to Rio qualifiers. Evil Genius will be heading to Stockholm in a couple of weeks.

Movistar Riders finished third at the Intel Master Extreme in Cologne in July. They were the third-4th seed and took home $80k. But they didn't qualify for Rio 2016 because they crashed out of three European RMR Qualifiers. Sashi Esport put an end to their hopes of traveling to Malta for the R MRMs.

Evil Geniuses have been around the CS:GO circuit for a while. They have failed to make a mark on the major tournaments. Since March they have had three different IGL's in the last year. Damien Marcel was removed from his role as head catch and demoted to a Strategy coach. Jadan Postma was appointed as the new Igl. Sanjar LaN was recruited as a coach and they will play in RMRs in Stockholm.

Team Liquid are a team on the rise. Eternal Fire is a new team. They are learning to play at the highest level.

Team Liquid are ranked third in the world behind Natus Vincere and FaZe Clan. They haven't won any trophies this year, but they have given form teams a run for their money. Their performance at the Blast Premier Fall groups was the turning point they've been waiting for all year. They won $27,500 and qualified for the Fall Finals. Mareks Gaļinskis, NAF, and EliGE have been in top form lately.

Eternal Fire won the Qualifier 3 of the ESL Pro League. It's the second S-tier tournament that Fire have participated in since the team was formed almost exactly a year ago. They will soon go to Malta for the IEM Road to Rio: European RMRs. They have players like XANTARES, Engin Küpeli and MAJ3R who have been playing CS:GO for a long time.

Cloud9 are the strongest team in their group. FURIA are just starting to make a name for themselves in the circuit.

Cloud9 returned to CS:GO in April after a year's break. They were knocked out of the Legends stage of PGL Antwerp Majors by Imperial. Three weeks later they were crowned champions at the IEM Dallas. C9 beat ENCE comfortably 3-0 in the Grand Final and won $100,000. After that they finished 3rd-4th at Roobet Cup and were eliminated from Iem Cologne.

Furia finished in 3rd-4th place at the previous edition of the ESL Pro League. They topped their group and reached the semi-finals, but lost to FaZe. Furia also finished 3nd-5th at IEM LAN Dallas. They qualified for the Iem Road to Rio European RMRs from the PGL Antwerp.