Journey from the New Challengers Stage wasn’t easy. Roster around El1an lost to BIG in the first round, but then they won 3 matches in a row and advanced to the next stage.
After a clear triumph over Astralis, black and greens, playing in new white jerseys, met Spanish Movistar Riders. Entropiq got to a quick 8-2 lead. Riders then managed to tie the game 11-11, but that was basically all. 16-12 win moved us to a Legends Stage match.
The representatives of the Czech organization had a difficult task. Bo3 series against the current fifth best team in the HLTV rankings – Heroic. The Danish team was a big favourite with odds of 1.3.
Entropiq on their map pick Ancient kept their opponent off to a rocky start, only for the Northerners to be flawless towards the end. After EIQ’s 10-16 loss, few doubted Heroic’s progress.
The paper assumptions were confirmed by the first rounds on Nuke. But EIQ managed to match the pace and ran away to a minor upset. The seesaw-like map gave the Danes one more chance.
At 14-12 Heroic were close to reducing it to a single point, in a 2v5 and later 1v4 situation they managed to humble their opponents, but their only player with a defuse kit was too far away from the bomb. Maybe a miscommunication, maybe bad timing, maybe great Entropiq.
Heroic still didn’t lay down their arms. They killed. They tightened up again to 15-14, Entropiq didn’t even have a decent buy in the last round, but still the round went our way. The decider map – Mirage.
Two words. Absolute dominance. The heroes had a small glimmer of hope at the beginning, but after that they didn’t know where their heads stood. By the end, they were perhaps a little resigned to the end.
After a clean second half, Entropiq strolled to a valuable 16-4 win, 2-1 on the map overall, and celebrated their advancement to the next stage as the third team from the New Challengers Stage.
We continue on 30 October. Fingers crossed!