Evil Geniuses to lower bracket final over Heroic

Evil Geniuses prevailed 2-1 over HEROIC to advance to the Group B lower bracket final in Belek.

A CT-side start on their own pick of Inferno was fruitful for Evil Geniuses, who found themselves up by seven rounds following multi-kills from Ethan "⁠Ethan⁠" Arnold and Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz early on. HEROIC finally got on the board in round eight, converting the ensuing round to run back a 7-5 scoreline and close the deficit between the two sides. Three frags from Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik kept Evil Geniuses in control, however, with the team taking another two rounds at the end of the half to remain ahead 9-6.

A USP-S triple kill for Patrick "⁠es3tag⁠" Hansen was responded to by Tsvetelin "⁠CeRq⁠" Dimitrov, who found four frags and pulled off a 1vs2 clutch in the ensuing round to help Evil Geniuses extend their lead to 12-7. A string of four rounds, thanks in part to a quad kill from es3tag, put HEROIC within one round of their opposition, but a double-entry from Ethan gave Evil Geniuses the opening they needed to add another two to their tally for a 14-11 scoreline.

HEROIC remained unfazed, however, and although they conceded map point, were able to fight for another quartet of rounds to push the map to overtime. A quad kill from CeRq was only enough to grant Evil Geniuses a single round on the offense, with Johannes "⁠b0RUP⁠" Borup responding in kind following the side swap as HEROIC conceded only one additional round before edging out a 19-17 victory.

A trio of frags from stanislaw was not enough to net his team the pistol round on Overpass, but another three from the Evil Geniuses captain on a force-buy saw the North American side answer back immediately to regain control. HEROIC managed to pick up just two of the ensuing 12 rounds as a stellar defense from Evil Geniuses kept the Danes at bay, with Ethan closing out the half for his side with an AWP quad kill for a 12-3 lead.

Evil Geniuses took the second pistol of the map for themselves, although a force-buy from HEROIC gave Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller and company the chance to post a handful of rounds as they once again attempted to claw back from a deficit. Ethan and tarik refused to concede, however, aiding their side in their final efforts to close out the map 16-7 and force a decider.

Three kills from Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte opened things up on Nuke as Evil Geniuses maintained momentum from their dominant performance on map two, with Ethan and CeRq contributing multi-frags of their own as their team took an 8-1 lead. A fight back from Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund and the rest of HEROIC towards the end of the half allowed the Danes to win a majority of the remaining rounds in the half, but another two for Evil Geniuses saw the team attain double digits at 10-5 before swapping sides.

stanislaw and tarik combined to net their team another pistol victory, extending their lead to 13-5 before HEROIC were able to answer back with a round of their own. With their economy on the brink of collapse, Evil Geniuses responded with pistols, winning the man-for-man trades before Ethan took the round for his side with a 1vs1 victory. CeRq repeated the effort in the following round to grant Evil Geniuses match point, and HEROIC were only able to keep themselves in the map for four additional rounds, including an anti-eco ace from cadiaN, before a triple kill from Brehze closed the series, taking one final point for a 16-10 win to set up an all-Americas clash against FURIA in the group's lower bracket final.