21.05.20245 min read

The Journey of The MongolZ in ESL Pro League Season 19

At the ESL Challenger League Season 46 tournament, which was held at the end of last year, The MongolZ lost their first match of the finals but made their way back from the bottom of the table and won the grand finale against TYLOO. Therefore, The MongolZ and TYLOO teams, who took the first two places in the tournament, got the right to participate in the ESL Pro League S19 tournament.

As for the ESL Pro League tournament, a total of 32 teams are divided into 4 groups on the island of Malta. The MongolZ, bLitz, and Techno previously participated in Season 17 from IHC Esports but ended with only one win against EG in the group stage.

This time, they were drawn into Group B, and their strongest opponents were Team Vitality, G2 Esports, and Team Falcons, while their weaker opponents were TYLOO, Sharks Esports, and M80. The MongolZ team’s first encounter was against Team Falcons, a team of dupreeh and Magisk, added to the old ENCE team.

As Team Falcons continues to use ENCE’s points, it ranks higher in the rankings, but since they haven’t achieved a high enough points tally in the tournaments they participated in, Mongolian fans predicted that The MongolZ would have a higher chance of winning the first match. However, according to the betting odds, international fans expected Team Falcons to win.

They played on three maps: Mirage, Nuke, and Ancient. In the first map, The MongolZ won by a score of 13-3, but on the next map, Nuke, individual errors were made, and Team Falcons won 13-9 to tie the score 1-1. On the final map, Ancient, the match between the two teams was well-balanced, but finally, The MongolZ won 13-11 and advanced into the next round.

Next up for The MongolZ was the #5 ranked G2 Esports team in the world. The game was crucial for both teams to enter the final stage, and they chose to play three maps: Ancient, Anubis, and Inferno, but The MongolZ team won very easily with a score of 13-4 on Ancient and 13-7 on Anubis, or 2-0.

Therefore, The MongolZ qualified for the finals, which was their first time competing in the finals of an S-Tier tournament. Before that, they had only played in the semifinals of ESL Challenger: Atlanta, but that tournament was an A-Tier tournament.

But their group stage games didn’t end there, as they faced top seed Team Vitality in a match to decide who would advance to the top of the group. They chose Mirage, Nuke, and Overpass, but The MongolZ lost 0-2 and finished second in the group, while Team Vitality finished first.

The difference between the teams is, for Team Vitality, they are directly qualified for the Round of 8, while The MongolZ, must enter the Round of 12, one game away from reaching the Round of 8.

In previous seasons, each group’s matches lasted for 7 days, but starting this season, the matches of groups A and B will be held simultaneously, and after that, the matches of groups C and D will be held simultaneously, making the tournament last 3 weeks in total.

After group A and B’s matches had finished, the tournament organizers temporarily returned the players to their home country. Whether it was due to the lack of accommodation to accommodate the players of groups C and D, or whether it was cheaper to send them by plane than to stay in the hotel for 7 days, either way, The MongolZ team returned to their home country after qualifying for the finals.

They flew back to Malta after 5-6 days of rest at home and, considering the Round of 16 teams who finished 3rd and 4th in the group, it was an advantage that they could rest for a day without playing a game.

After all the group matches were over, the finals teams were ranked, and The MongolZ faced off against the winner of Virtus.Pro, who finished 4th in Group A, and GamerLegion, who finished 3rd in Group C.

On the first day of the finals, Virtus.Pro defeated GamerLegion and went on to play The MongolZ. Overpass, Mirage, and Ancient were vetoed in the Virtus.Pro team’s match and Overpass was the map that Virtus Pro felt most comfortable with.

The MongolZ managed to take the Overpass map and start the game in their favor. However, on their next map, Mirage, Virtus.Pro responded with a victory, tying the score at 1-1. On their 3rd map, Ancient, The MongolZ took full control of the first half with a 10-2 lead.

Although The MongolZ took the first round of the 2nd half of the 3rd map to make the score 11-2 after that Virtus Pro completely turned the game around and The MongolZ could not win a single round. Virtus Pro won the match by winning 11 consecutive rounds.

This is how the ESL Pro League S19 tournament ended for The MongolZ, but it was still a huge success for them, and it was clear that they were among the top 15 teams in the ESL World Ranking with 130 points.

The MongolZ team will continue to compete in the ESL Challenger League S47 in the Asia region when they arrive back home, where they will compete for a place in the EPL S20 next season.

AuthorTemujin Batbayar

Analyst from Ulaanbaatar specializing in CS2. Has competed in MESA tournaments, worked with Esports TV during the ESL Pro League, and reviewed both the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 and IEM Katowice 2024. Author of his own player evaluation metrics and known for accurate predictions. Has interviewed s1mple and ZywOo. In esports since the days of CS 1.3.