Dignitas beat Heroic to qualify for BLAST Premier Spring Showdown

Dignitas booked a spot in the BLAST Premier Europe Spring Showdown with a 2-1 victory over HEROIC in the last-four stage of the Elisa Invitational.

The Swedish team picked up a much-needed victory after some mixed results since returning from Flashpoint, taking advantage of a HEROIC team that looked a step off the pace. The Danes had qualified directly for the semi-finals after finishing their group in first place, but they were unable to take the last step in this three-map affair that was largely dominated by the Swedes.

Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström's troops, who had defeated North 2-0 earlier on Sunday in the first round of the playoffs, put in a strong all-round performance, led by veterans Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund and Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg, and will be looking to carry this momentum into their final two matches of ESL One: Road to Rio to end the group stage on a positive note.

Dignitas came out with all guns blazing and began to dictate the tempo on Inferno once they had money in the bank. After losing the opening two rounds, the Swedes went on a dominant 12-round winning streak, with the final round then going HEROIC's way after establishing an early presence on Ivy with two quick kills from Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller.

HEROIC looked reinvigorated after switching to the offensive side, winning five of the initial six rounds to bring the deficit to 8-13. Dignitas would not let a comeback happen, though, and went on another winning streak on the back of a trio of kills from GeT_RiGhT to quickly close out the game.

Next up was Dust2, where HEROIC were in control for the majority of the gun rounds, though only one round separated the two teams at the break as Dignitas enjoyed brief periods of superiority at the beginning and end of the half.

Dignitas restored parity at eight rounds after winning the pistol round, but there was no follow-up as they were caught off-guard by the Desert Eagles of HEROIC, who used that momentum to build a solid lead. Adam "⁠friberg⁠" Friberg kept his team in the game with some crucial frags over in Long in multiple rounds before the Danes put the game to bed with a four-round winning streak.

The first half of Nuke was a Dignitas siege as the Swedish team ran all over the HEROIC defense. The rounds that cadiaN's troops edged out were few and far between as their Nordic opponents romped to a commanding 11-4 lead, with f0rest raising eyebrows with a sensational 1v3 clutch and GeT_RiGhT with an ace in the final round.

HEROIC began to chip away at the deficit after switching to the T side, shutting down any chances of Dignitas stringing rounds together. The game quickly descended into a scrappy affair, with the Swedes eventually locking down the map after hitting match point with little more than pistols.

The BLAST Premier Spring Showdown will be held from May 31 through June 7 with 10 teams in attendance, including the bottom finishers from the Spring Series. The team list for the tournament currently looks as follows: