ESL Week 5 Recap, Monthly Hype

First, let’s get the big one out of the way. The prize-pools are now massively larger! And relative to the competitive scene of Company of Heroes, they are now officially hype!

This was a testament to Relic’s commitment to their ESL endeavour. By taking on many of the tournament duties themselves, they now are able to reallocate funds from ESL back into the prize-pool.

Weeklies:
EU: 1st €180, 2nd €135, 3rd €90
NA: 1st $200, 2nd $150, 3rd $100

Monthlies:
EU: 1st €1300, 2nd €600
NA: 1st $1400, 2nd $650

A colossal increase far beyond what we could have expected! Now, the players are going to fight for their lives. The new competitors of Talisman, ASSBAG, and Space Hamster won’t just be vying for position; they’ll be going for the jugular. In addition, sleeping giants such as DevM and other legendary players, won’t just be lazily watching with one eye. They’ll be looking to reclaim their former dominance.



This week was North America’s time to shine as a spectacle. The cast team had waited for the kind of rare and epic moments that the EU team had been lucky enough to see, and boy was the wait worth it!

The ending moments of DevM vs. Dusty wasn’t just thrilling viewing and nail biting in its conclusion. It represented the moments that we, as Company of Heroes fans, live for. It was a reaffirmation of why we love the series so much. Just watch it! You won’t be disappointed!


The journey from that point onwards was one of an old gladiator, remembering what it’s like to win a fight. It’s crazy to think this Portugese Man o’ War only played in the NA cup because he overslept the EU one’s check-in time!

?A_E:Congrats on winning NA. Please tell us about the last two weeks getting back into CoH2 after three months off. What was it like to get back to form?

!The last two weeks have mostly been used to check out the changes to the game and how the meta has evolved, getting back to CoH2 has been especially hard for me. I specifically play a style that is hard to win with if you get rusty, being aggressive means taking risks and if you haven't been playing, then your game awareness and overall micro are tuned down a bit, which causes those risks to not pay off. I think I was expecting my Ostheer to fail a lot, since they have always been the faction I have had the most trouble with. Which is why I only practiced with them rather than focusing on my allies gameplay. I’m getting closer to what I used to play like, but I still do a lot of mistakes that shouldn't be there, but I know what those are; it’s a matter of time now.DevM

?A_E:You cheekily called yourself CashGrab D€vM for this tournament, can you talk us through the joke behind that?

!Well, that is related to how the community sees me and Aimstrong. We are seen as the guys that come in to "run away" with the money, which for me is stupid for multiple reasons, but above all: it’s up to the competition to step up their game. So, why not embrace the bad reputation a bit, and have fun with it, I thought. DevM

?A_E:It was a ridiculous game vs. Dusty's Brits on Faymonville Approach - can you talk us through what happened in that game and if there was anything you could have done to finish him off?

!Well, that game was very well executed in the early game but then I threw my lead over and over again. The fact that he got my Pak decided the game a lot, it could have been over right after my Ostwind was out if he didn't have that kind of AT in his hands. There were multiple things I could have done, the main one being not to lose as many units as I did, that must be one of the games where I lost more units carelessly, adding to that, saving up for the close air support ability would have been a very good way to deal with the crocodile and AECs.DevM

?A_E:You seemed to unleash your USF on the players after practicing with the Soviets, what made you change your mind on that?

!I feel like my soviets are still on the "beta" stages, I have been trying lots of openings, which is what I usually like to do when I grab a faction, it's not my intention to mindlessly follow the meta. So, I like to see and test stuff in my own games to find out what’s better for me and what I prefer to do. Since my focus has been on my Ostheer, and I haven't put as many hours as I should have into CoH2, my soviets aren't exactly where I want them to be yet. I wasn't actually sure how good my USF play was, since that was literally the first time I played them since my break. I also knew that my soviets were probably still not up to par with the top players at the moment, but I still went for the unpracticed USF. And my favorite faction didn't let me down, haha.DevM

?A_E:You're of course a gigantic e-sports legend that has now made a big comeback; do you have anything inspirational to say to your legions of fans?

!Legion is a big word to use for my two fans, haha. I suppose I could say that there will be an improvement in my gameplay over the next weeks and it can be expected that I will come back to my past skill level.DevM

Without the big names of Luvnest and Jesulin in the EU this week, it was a fantastically unpredictable affair where players played with a sense of urgency, tenacity, and most of all – hunger.

Amongst the cast uploaded to YouTube, you’ll find such delights as Noggano showing us all how to counter early game maxim spam in the most effective way possible, leading to a long and exciting battle against Barton.

A five star thriller between Barton and his Polish clanmate Price, showing how being obnoxious is a valid military tactic, resulting in epic battles to the death.

Stormless shows us all that he’s not just a pretty face in his aggressive tangle with a man named E-zy but who as a tournament draw is anything but.

And most of all an epic mano-a-mano battle between Jove and his clanmate Noggano as the ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ of RUKAcl came to vicious blows in a brutal game of chess as the grand masters battled to become ESL Champion for that week. Most importantly which one of them would end up in the final eight to go through to the monthly final?

All of it can be found in this YouTube playlist.

?A_E:So, "Father Noggano" played "Mother Jove". Can you tell us a bit about what it was like to play a fellow Russian clan-mate in a competitive tournament final?

!Well, I have played a lot against Jove in 1v1 matches and also 2v2s. I always practice before a tourney with him, so we know everything about each other. Every game against against Jove is hard, he knows all my moves and build orders, just one little mistake from me and it’s game over.Noggano

?A_E:You've had many memorable tournament matches in CoH2 recently, what has been your personal favourite victories?

!My favourite victories were the games in the semi-final and final from Clan Clash 2 – against Jove's team in the semi and Black Pheonix in final.Noggano

?A_E:With this weekly tournament win you have confirmed your place in the final eight players for next weekend's Monthly Final. Do you think you have what it takes to be the overall winner?

!In my opinion, all eight participants have equal chances to win the upcoming and highly anticipated tournament.Noggano

?A_E:You've been near the top of tournament play for both CoH1 and CoH2 in both 1v1 and 2v2 for a while now, to what do you attribute your personal success in CoH tournaments?

!By pressing the right buttons I anticipate to win the match. Joking apart, I highly enjoy playing the Company of Heroes franchise and hope for many exciting matches in the tournament.Noggano

?A_E:As you're now an e-sports mega star, do you have any words of advice for your young CoH fans out there?

!I am looking forward to seeing a huge COH community that will offer a lot of games and a wide-range of players. In this sense I expect many upcoming tournaments of both 1v1 and 2v2. I advise newer players to the Company of Heroes Franchise, who want to improve their skills on the battlefield, to learn from high-skilled players by watching their strategies on YouTube, inside the ingame-streaming application of COH2 or by watching their live streams on streaming-platforms like Twitch.Noggano

EU at 12:00 GMT

• ASSBAG
  
• BartonPL
  
• Cruzz
  
• HelpingHans
  
• Jesulin
  
• Luvnest
  
• RUKAclNoggano
  
• Talisman
  

NA at 21:00 GMT

• Alucard
  
• Dusty
  
• IIPLIICaptainSPrice
  
• Luvnest
  
• PauLaD
  
• Shadowwada
  
• SpaceHamster
  
• VonIvan
  

Eight players in each division clash in a blistering series of tantalising encounters, where they fight to stake their claim as the first ESL monthly champions of Europe and North America.

Twenty matches in total will feature the best competition CoH2 has to offer! Tell your friends, tell your families, tell your former flatmates and future lovers – there’s a war on this Saturday, and by the end of it only two players will be left standing as our Champions!

Tune into Relic’s Twitch channel to see these games casted live and in colour, as the casters go all out to bring you the best commentary, insight, and entertainment they can!