Heroic beat Illuminar to make DreamHack Open Atlanta playoffs

HEROIC won the best-of-one Group A winners’ match against Illuminar, 16-13, to secure a spot in the DreamHack Open Atlanta semi-finals.

HEROIC are no strangers to DreamHack’s Open tour, having finished in second place in Rotterdam a month ago. They were able to throw their weight around at another DreamHack Open again today defeating Illuminar to seal their pass to the playoffs. Before that, the Danes started their first day in Atlanta playing against the North American side Triumph, who they were able to best without breaking a sweat on Nuke, 16-6, earning a spot in the Group A winners’ match. Illuminar on the other hand had a tougher nail, but managed to beat Sprout in their opening match, 16-11 on Train.

HEROIC went on the offensive on their CT pistol round on Overpass, taking the battle to playground, where both teams traded kills twice, but the Danes were then able to win a 3vs3 afterplant after rushing back to B to take a 1-0 lead. After giving up two rounds, Illuminar started to take charge on the attacking side once guns were in play, going up 4-3 before HEROIC could strike back, but having paused and resetting their defense, the Danes kicked it into gear and went on to take the half 10-5.

HEROIC kept steamrolling over Illuminar on the second half, winning the pistol round against forcebuys to a 13-5 lead. The Poles were then able to buy rifles, and despite barely having utility, they managed to stop an A push as Paweł "⁠reatz⁠" Jańczak closed out a 1vs1 against Patrick "⁠es3tag⁠" Hansen on B. Illuminar then followed it up to make it 13-7, but a late A execute by HEROIC with barely any utility pushing them back brought it to within one of match point. Illuminar then won a nearly perfect B hold, and were able to live through several precarious rounds after giving up match point, but it was finally HEROIC on a pistol buy who closed it out, 16-13, to certify a playoff appearance in Atlanta.