Russia's Gambit, competing at ESL Pro League Season 15 under the name Players, has secured a playoff spot. After beating GODSENT on three maps, the team finished third in the group. The Players also beat Party Astronauts and BGI in their previous group stage matches, but lost to Movistar Riders. The team will play a match against Liquid on Sunday evening, but it will not affect who gets into the playoffs: its result will determine where the teams start in the next stage. Interestingly, Liquid proved to be as successful in the group stage as Players, losing only to Movistar Riders and beating three other teams.
On the first two maps the forces of GODSENT and Gambit looked almost equal: Inferno ended with the score 16 – 14 in favor of the Russian team, and Overpass remained for GODSENT also with a slight advantage (13 – 16). The fate of the match was decided on the Mirage map, and here Gambit's advantage was overwhelming. From the start, its players controlled what was happening on the map, and the Brazilians were only able to win two rounds before changing sides. As a result, the gap in the score became too large for GODSENT to counter it with anything, and the card draw ended with a score of 16 – 3.