Heroic eliminate Cloud9 to move on at EPL Finals

Heroic continue their lower bracket run at the ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals after eliminating Major champions Cloud9 on two maps. The Americans didn't look the part as they were dismantled by Heroic's stand-in, Jorgen "⁠cromen⁠" Robertsen.

Starting out on HEROIC's pick Mirage, the Scandinavian team won the pistol round with captain Andreas "⁠MODDII⁠" Fridh finding three Cloud9 players.

HEROIC had two succesful anti-eco rounds, but then Cloud9 won their first gun round to make it 3-1. Then the Americans took charge and made it all the way to 6-3 in their favor before HEROIC answered back.

The 11th round saw Cloud9 completely shut the Scandinavians down as they took control of middle and with that a clean round that destroyed Heroic's economy.

cromen made do without any money in the bank in the next round, in which he managed a triple kill with two frags from a stolen AWP. This reinvigorated HEROIC, who took another round thanks to a clutch by Nikolaj "⁠niko⁠" Kristensen. HEROIC won one more close round before halftime and ended up with a respectable 7-8 deficit.

The intensely close skirmishes continued into the second half with the pistol round ending in a 1v1 between Timothy "⁠autimatic⁠" Ta and Adam "⁠friberg⁠" Friberg, with the former coming out on top.

Pistols were all that Heroic needed in the next round, which they won to bring it back to 9-8. niko followed it up with an anti-eco ace to make the score even, with cromen almost following that up with a quad kill in a seemingly impossible 1v4 clutch.

From there, HEROIC took off and easily made it to a 14-9 lead. Cloud9 rallied back with two solid A hits, but with enough money in the bank from the previous streak, Heroic fended off the American comeback and won the map, 16-11.

Next up was Overpass, where Cloud9 easily won the pistol round with a decisive B hit. The Scandinavians tried stacking that same site in their first eco round, but Tyler "⁠Skadoodle⁠" Latham kept HEROIC's players at bay with a quad kill.

HEROIC succesfully went aggressive in their first gun round and made it to 1-3. Solid coordination and great individual play by veteran friberg and cromen helped HEROIC cruise to a 9-3 lead before the Americans took a tactical pause.

This seemed to be the right choice. Pujan "⁠FNS⁠" Mehta and his crew finally succeeded with a B execution, and they picked up two more rounds before the end of the half to bring the deficit to 6-9.

The second half began with Patrick "⁠es3tag⁠" Hansen getting three quick kills to help HEROIC secure the pistol round. The following anti-eco rounds were no-brainers from the Scandinavians, who could see the victory on the horizon with a 12-6 lead.

The European team marched towards victory without the Major champions showing much in the way of stopping their opponents, with the map ending with a 16-7 scoreline in HEROIC's favour.