Round 5 of the ESL Pro League S23 Online Stage Swiss bracket will decide the last teams that advance to Stage 2. With only three spots up for grabs, the winners of today’s matches will move to Stage 2 with a clean slate, and the losers jump into practice mode for their next event.
PARIVISION vs HEROIC
PARIVISION started the Swiss exactly the way it’s expected from them, with two sweeps over SemperFi and paiN. But things took a rough turn since then: 0-2 loss to Legacy, then falling short against Monte 1-2 in Round 4 – and now they’re down in the 2-2 pool. HEROIC’s route was a bit more up-and-down: opened with a 2-0 vs NRG, but then got swept by Astralis and Monte before stabilizing with a 2-0 over Passion UA in Round 4.
The head-to-head shows only one clash between these two: at IEM Kraków 2026 Stage 1, where PARIVISION won the series. Oddly enough, Dust2 (PARIVISION’s strongest stat map) went HEROIC’s way – but PARIVISION took Ancient and Inferno.
They key point in this matchup will be the tempo, and if PARIVISION manage to slow it down to their signature Jame-y style. If they succeed in disrupting HEROIC’s early plays and shake their confidence early (something they didn’t manage against Monte), this should easily go their way. And considering it’s an elimination match, I think Jame’s troops won’t allow a third “bad game” in a row.
Prediction: PARIVISION 2-1.
G2 vs NiP
I didn’t expect G2 would put themselves in this position this early in the Swiss. They started off good – they beat Gaimin Gladiators 2-0 in Round 1, got swept by Legacy, recovered with a 2-1 against M80, before falling to paiN in two overtimes (14-16 Inferno, 12-16 Mirage).
NiP’s run was messy too, but at least they trended upward: they lost 1-2 to Legacy and M80, then survived a third-map double overtime against NRG (19-16), followed with a clean sweep against Gaimin Gladiators in Round 4.
Since there’s no real recent head-to-head matches to compare, and both teams’ recent match results are all over the place, this one will probably go down to who brings their A-game today. NiP can make it annoying – but despite the bad couple of games, G2 still is the team with the higher ceiling here. And since both teams insta-bans eachother’s comfort maps, G2 will most likely be a lot more comfortable on neutral ground.
Prediction: G2 2-1.
3DMAX vs Team Liquid
The French squad opened with a tight loss to paiN, but responded with back-to-back sweeps against SemperFi and Gaimin Gladiators, before Astralis cut the dream for early advance short in Round 4. Team Liquid’s run has been even more stressful: lost to a not-in-sync Passion UA in the opener, then lost a close 1-2 to the #77 ranked (at the time of writing) Gaimin Gladiators – but they managed to keep their run alive with two straight (very close) 2-1 wins over SemperFi and M80.
The recent head-to-head matches show only one recent series being played between them at CS Asia Championships 2025 back in October, where 3DMAX won 2-1. This is also a fairly even matchup map-wise, so it might come down to which team shows up in better form. My money goes to 3DMAX in a tight series.
Prediction: 3DMAX 2-1.
