Second week of EPS Germany is finished, and it's time to recap what happened. No big surprises took place and the big favorites are on their scheduled track, while some supposed Finals contenders received an early wake up call.
In the first official Intel Friday Night Game of the season, after gamescom hosted a LAN match for the opening day of the season, TBHand mTwmet in Hamburg. TBH took part in that opening match two weeks ago and dropped 2 points against ESC, but this time they were more successful, taking the whole loot against mTw's German division with a 16-11 win.
In what was probably the least interesting match of the week, big favorite mousesportshad an easy job against the minnows of mystical Lambda. A 16-2 score line speaks for itself, as mousesports won their 27th match in a row in the Pro Series. The last time they lost was on November 4th, 2009 to You Don't Know Me during season 15, and since then they didn't drop a single map, including their two participations in LAN Finals.
ALTERNATEdefeated Frankfurt 69ersalso quite easily 16-8, despite a close 9-6 first half, as the Frankfurt-based team had to use their manager as a fifth player and unsurprisingly didn't have very high ambitions for this match.
Alternative wasn't really lucky with the draw for their season start, as they met mousesports last week and now had to meet n!faculty. The match ended as expected with n!faculty winning, but Alternative showed that they will not be an easy opponent for anyone this season. After winning 13 rounds against mouz last week, they took 10 now and will soon be looking for their first points when they meet snook on Monday.
The most exciting match of the week saw Bouncer4Youcause Finals contenders ESC to drop another 2 points after they drew with TBH in their first match. ESC should perhaps be satisfied with taking any points at all, as they staged another big comeback just like last week. As the 2nd half started unfolding, B4Y reached a comfortable 14-7 advantage, but ESC stepped it up with some great CT play and took 8 rounds in a row and even led 15-14. But B4Y had enough left in them to take the last round and share the points, putting both teams on 2 draws in 2 matches.
Another match that was promising to be a close one, especially taking into account the teams' pre-match statements where they were both guaranteeing victory, was You Don't Know Mevs. myRevenge. However, ydk.me took control of the match early and secured a 10-5 lead at the half that could have been even bigger. Then they even stepped it up by sweeping the promising myRevenge lineup in the second half and taking the match 16-5. By that they surely announced their candidacy for top4, also being the only team next to the big three of mouz, n!faculty and ALTERNATE to have the maximum 6 points from the first 2 matches.
In other matches, first victories of the season were recorded by Tera by beating Hardware4u 16-10 and by freshly promoted ARSENIX who defeated snook, also 16-10.
Current standings can be found here.
 Tera vs Hardware4u | 16-10 | Demo | Stats |
| ARSENIX vs snook | 16-10 | Demo | Stats |
| mousesports vs mystical Lambda | 16-2 | Demo | Stats |
| Bouncer4You vs ESC | 15-15 | Demo | Stats |
| n!faculty vs Alternative | 16-10 | Demo | Stats |
| ALTERNATE vs Frankfurt 69ers | 16-8 | Demo | Stats |
| You Don't Know Me vs myRevenge | 16-5 | Demo | Stats |
| TBH vs mTw | 16-11 | Stats |
Player performances
The two best rated players come from the same team, as Navid "Kapio" Javadi and Roman "roman" Ausserdorfer led mousesports in their easy victory over mystical Lambda. Javadi had 21 kills and only 5 deaths, while last season's MVP Ausserdorfer recorded a 22-9 score in their 16-2 win.
Kim "NeOn" Bäumchen probably played the best match of his career so far, as he had 37 kills in Bouncer4You's draw with ESC. He had an amazing 13 rounds with 2 or more kills in this very close match. In his previous, debut season, Bäumchen was a backup player for last placed cwG, but he managed to remain in the highest tier and he will certainly stay for a while if he can continue performing like this.
One of the most experienced players in the league, Christian "todi" Hackmann, is a new player in You Don't Know Me this season and in the match against myRevenge he proved he will be a great addition for the Finals-aspiring team. Hackman had 26 kills, 10 more than anyone else in the match and topped the scoreboard in both halves.
Rookie team ARSENIX's captain Alexander "aBBEEE" Brinkmann led his team to their first 3 points against snook with 27 kills in a 16-10 victory. He had some ups and downs throughout the match, but recorded 3 or more kills 4 times, and that brought some important rounds to his team and eventually the win.
A few other players that deserve a mention for their heroics this week are ALTERNATE's Manuel "approx" Zeitz and Roman "Roman R." Reinhardt, as well as ESC's Bünyamin "neeky" Naziyok. Also, André "Kirby" Kempa marked his return from a long ESL ban with a nice performance despite Hardware4u's loss.
| # | Player | K-D | Rating | Demo |
| 1. | Navid 'Kapio' Javadi | 21-5 | 1.92 | |
| 2. | Roman 'roman' Ausserdorfer | 22-9 | 1.85 | |
| 3. | Kim 'NeOn' Bäumchen | 37-20 | 1.73 | POV |
| 4. | Christian 'todi' Hackmann | 26-14 | 1.72 | |
| 5. | Alexander 'aBBEEE' Brinkmann | 33-21 | 1.47 | POV (CT) |
Team performances
mousesports are the top rated team this week following their quick victory over mystical Lambda. Other teams that stood out with more dominant play are ALTERNATE and You Don't Know Me, as well as rookies ARSENIX.
| # | Team | Result | Rating |
| 1. | mousesports | 16-2 vs mystical Lambda | 1.53 |
| 2. | ALTERNATE | 16-8 vs Frankfurt 69ers | 1.28 |
| 3. | You Don't Know Me | 16-5 vs myRevenge | 1.18 |
| 4. | ARSENIX | 16-10 vs snook | 1.18 |
Worst performances
| Player | K-D | Match | Rating |
 Lukas 'apeX' Piersciecki | 2-17 | my* vs mouz (2-16) | 0.14 |
| Team | Result | Rating |
| mystical Lambda | 2-16 vs mousesports | 0.46 |
Check out the rest of the stats from the league here, and have a look at the rest of the POV demos here. Stay tuned to HLTV.org for complete coverage of the 17th season ESL Pro Series Germany.