TYLOO are Emerging as ESL Pro League S21’s New Fan Favorites

With Stage 2 of ESL Pro League Season 21 now underway, the hype has been growing to see TYLOO test themselves against some of the better teams in the competition. Up first was Team Spirit, about as unfavorable a matchup as they could hope to have had.

Admittedly, that first match didn’t go as planned, with TYLOO falling to a 2:0 defeat against Spirit, who were on a mission to put their disastrous IEM Katowice Final behind them. Even still, TYLOO continued to win hearts and minds, showing why they have emerged as the new fan favorites at ESL Pro League.

TYLOO’s solid Counter-Strike is fundamental to their popularity

While much of TYLOO’s popularity is down to personalities, they’re not out there on the server playing like total bots, either. In Stage 1 of ESL Pro League S21, we saw them beat 3DMAX, Eternal Fire, and FlyQuest, all of whom are a strong challenge for a team like TYLOO. This wasn’t a case of TYLOO surprising others with a unique brand of wacky Asian Counter-Strike, too – they were pretty on meta, and doing it well with incredibly strong fundamentals. There’s a real staying power to this kind of CS.

Coming into Stage 2, they even came within a couple of rounds of taking a map from Team Spirit. I’d even go as far as to argue TYLOO were the better team in that map, only falling to another dominant donk display. TYLOO aren’t the first and won’t be the last in this regard. Their decision to make Mercury the IGL is paying off, even if it feels like the mantle has been passed around a lot on this roster.

Their commitment to this standard brand of Counter-Strike has already come with its share of rewards for TYLOO. The love of the people is nice, but going from #113 pre-tournament to #37 in the Valve Regional Standings (at the time of writing) is even better. It won’t be enough to get them any direct invites yet, but it gives them a solid base to work from, and they can go even higher by winning more matches at ESL Pro League.

Who doesn’t love Jee?

Arguably the biggest reason we’ve seen TYLOO’s flood of popularity during ESL Pro League S21 is Jee. In a Chinese scene typically filled with humble, quiet figures, AWPer Jee is a bubbly, more outgoing personality, winning fans over with his hilarious interviews. It was his teary-eyed post-match interview against FlyQuest that really cemented him and TYLOO as favorites here.

There, he admitted to being toxic to his teammates after they fell to the 2:2 bracket of ESL Pro League Stage 1. He had apologized to his teammates, who accepted and showed faith in him on the server. All of this is set against the backdrop of remaining tensions among Chinese fans about Jee’s controversial move from Lynn Vision to TYLOO last year, which surely adds even more pressure to perform.

Jee has shown a level of vulnerability rare among professional Counter-Strike players. That, I think, is why we’ve collectively warmed towards this team so quickly. I’ll certainly be following and rooting for him and his team throughout the rest of ESL Pro League, and I’d like nothing more than to see them reach a few more events this year.