FURIA beat Triumph to qualify for ESL Pro League Season 12

FURIA emerged as the victors of a three-map affair against Triumph to secure a spot in ESL Pro League Season 12.

FURIA and Triumph were invited to take part in a three-team special qualifier for Season 12 of ESL Pro League alongside Infinity, scheduled due to the restructuring of ESL Pro League resulting in the demotion of select non-partner teams to MDL. Notably, the likes of Bad News Bears and Swole Patrol would also have been included among participating teams in the qualifier had they not disbanded in the months prior.

Both FURIA and Triumph had little difficulty in dispatching of Infinity in their initial match-ups, scoring one-sided 2-0 series victories to set up one final bout against each other for a spot in the league for Season 12. While Triumph opened the proceedings with a strong showing on Overpass, they were quickly left in the dust on Inferno and Mirage as FURIA's aggression and fast pace proved too powerful, with Andrei "⁠arT⁠" Piovezan's side cruising through the decider map to ensure their qualification.

arT's impact in the series was crucial, averaging a 1.39 rating

FURIA were swift to set the pace on the CT side of Overpass, finding a clean sweep in the opening pistol before narrowly surviving a number of late round scenarios to go up 6-0. A Gabe "⁠Spongey⁠" Greiner quad kill gave Triumph their first, with the win immediately shattering the economy of the Brazilian squad to allow Alan "⁠Shakezullah⁠" Hardeman's men to take control and close the gap, bringing themselves within one round of their opposition by the break.

Triumph maintained momentum following the side swap, securing five rounds straight to steal away the lead at 12-8. FURIA abused the double AWP setup of the American squad by breaking through the B bombsite to find three of their own, but double kills from Paytyn "⁠junior⁠" Johnson and Michael "⁠Grim⁠" Wince got Triumph back on the board with their thirteenth. Additional opening picks from junior's AWP kept Triumph in control from there, with Grim adding multi-frag rounds of his own to help his side close out the map, 16-11.

An A site defense saw Triumph kick off FURIA's pick of Inferno in the lead, taking two rounds despite sustaining heavy damage. Those player losses quickly came back to haunt Shakezullah's troops however, with FURIA gaining the upper hand once they had rifles and Triumph finding themselves unable to defend against the aggression of the Brazilian roster round after round. It was only towards the end of the half that Triumph stabilized and added to their tally, Spongey and Grim securing three frags apiece to bring their team back into contention at a 10-5 scoreline in favour of FURIA.

FURIA have earned a spot in ESL Pro League Season 12

Triumph seemed set to make a close affair of things as they closed the gap by three rounds following a pistol win, but again, FURIA stabilized to rapidly approach match point. A 1vs3 from junior briefly stalled FURIA from closing things out, but a CZ-75 triple from Vinicius "⁠VINI⁠" Figueiredo quickly got the Brazilian roster back on the board as they closed the map with a final round, 16-10.

The situation took a grim turn for Triumph as Mirage got underway, with the American roster struggling to find entry into bombsites for much of the half as stellar fragging from the FURIA roster put them ahead 12-3 at halftime. Three rounds off the back of a second half pistol win allowed Triumph to double their score, but that was the only solace they took coming out of the match as FURIA swiftly closed out the series with four final rounds.

ESL Pro League Season 12 North America QualifierBest of 3

FURIA

Matchpage

2

1

11th June 2020

Triumph

11

Overpass

16

16

Inferno

10

16

Mirage

6

FURIA	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Andrei 'arT' PiovezanarT	69 - 57	+12	90.9	74.7%	1.39
Vinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoVINI	54 - 46	+8	81.3	73.3%	1.19
Kaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoKSCERATO	49 - 41	+8	64.7	74.7%	1.07
Yuri 'yuurih' Santosyuurih	42 - 46	-4	73.1	74.7%	1.01
Henrique 'HEN1' TelesHEN1	33 - 45	-12	50.3	68.0%	0.80

Triumph	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Paytyn 'junior' Johnsonjunior	56 - 45	+11	72.3	70.7%	1.14
Michael 'Grim' WinceGrim	61 - 50	+11	82.0	74.7%	1.14
Alan 'Shakezullah' HardemanShakezullah	43 - 52	-9	68.8	64.0%	0.89
Gabe 'Spongey' GreinerSpongey	36 - 47	-11	59.7	66.7%	0.88
Rahul 'curry' Nemanicurry	37 - 53	-16	58.9	69.3%	0.85

The team list for ESL Pro League Season 12 now looks as follows:

Partner teams
100 Thieves
Astralis
Complexity
ENCE
Evil Geniuses
FaZe
fnatic
G2
MOUZ
Natus Vincere
Ninjas in Pyjamas
Liquid
Vitality

Invited
BOOM
Renegades
Sharks
Qualified
FURIA
Europe Qualifier
Europe Qualifier
South America Qualifier
Oceania Qualifier
Asia Qualifier
Global Challenge
Global Challenge