We’re not sure if this is controversial, but we sneakily quite like the new ESL Pro League.

The new format is great. It’s no longer in Malta. It doesn’t take half the year just to get to a 40 team playoff that takes another three months to finish.

Only a slight exaggeration.

We have simply one problem with it; though it’s no longer in Malta, the playoffs are still in a studio, and that suuuuuucks. If this was a double Swiss system into arena playoffs, we’d be fully on board. But for now, we’re a little underwhelmed.

And that brings us on to how MOUZ won a game in the playoffs.

It’s hard not to be impressed by how Brollan has taken to IGLing, but we’ll give it a go. This is still just a studio event, and it’s only a win over a G2 team who have been, well, a bit crap so far this year, and as such we have to caveat it.

But MOUZ won a tight quarter-final with a new IGL in a big event against another top 8 team. We can caveat it all we want, but this was a big win for them.

The other quarter-final yesterday was Spirit vs. Eternal Fire, which, on paper, seemed like an easy win for Spirit. EF is a good team, but they’ve been pretty shaky of late, with losses to TYLOO, 3DMAX, Falcons, and Liquid in the last month. FaZe, too, though that happens to the best of us.

Spirit are, without doubt, a top 2 team in the world, and it seemed like it would be a simple win for them. They did manage the win, but it wasn’t as decisive as one might have expected. Eternal Fire remain a nightmare to play against on Anubis, and Nuke went to double OT, but Spirit eventually won out.

Today, though, we have a classic two-course menu. A starter that whets the palate but doesn’t fill you up in Vitality v Liquid (we’ll be amazed if Liquid take a map), and a humdinger main course of NAVI vs. The MongolZ.

Vitality are the best team in the world for our money, and Liquid are on borrowed time this deep in the tournament. NAVI, on the other hand, aren’t in great shape right now (even without the aforementioned in-fighting) and The MongolZ are flying high.

NAVI are the better team, but The MongolZ have the power of friendship, God and anime on their side. We expect two overtimes, three maps, and a close, close NAVI win, but that game could go in any way.

Watch it. We demand it.