Heroic lead EPL Group A after Vitality thriller

HEROIC came back from a 9-13 deficit on Inferno to maintain an undefeated record in the group.

HEROIC have seized the lead in Group A at ESL Pro League following a hard-fought victory against Vitality. Now sitting at a 3-0 record as the only undefeated team in the group, the Danes look poised to secure first place as they head into the final two rounds of play in the round robin, in which they will face ENCE and Astralis.

Meanwhile, Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut's side will aim to bounce back from the close loss and lock a playoffs spot over the next two days, which will see them pitted against Astralis and the struggling Spirit.

There wasn't much that went well for Vitality on Vertigo. Starting on the Terrorist side on their own pick, the Frenchmen kept running head-first into a Danish wall, with HEROIC putting together a stellar defense after they converted a couple of close early retakes on the A bombsite.

With a 13-2 half in the bag and a pistol round victory on top, Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller and company had such a massive cushion that they cared precious little about Vitality's forcebuy success, locking down the map a few rounds later at 16-7 in the end.

Albeit short, Vitality's successful run at the end of Vertigo seemed to breathe some life into them, and they got off to a much better start on Nuke. Kévin "⁠misutaaa⁠" Rabier kicked things off with a pistol round ace, and a couple of more multikills from him as well as ZywOo's 1v2 clutch gave the French side six rounds early on in the half.

Although that was all she wrote for Vitality on the CT side, once the team switched over to Terrorists they were back in control. Outside of a blunder that saw HEROIC pull off a well-timed lobby crunch with low weaponry, Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire's squad dominated the second half with ZywOo and the in-game leader at the helm and forced the deciding map at 16-12.

HEROIC were the first to gain momentum on Inferno, but as the first half progressed Vitality looked to put their stamp on the deciding map with a strong run on the Terrorist side, followed by a flawless start when sides switched, courtesy of a fantastic ZywOo 1v3 clutch in the second pistol round. It wasn't until 9-13 that the French side began to struggle, with the Danes finding ways back into rounds in which they were at big disadvantages and managing to come out of several close retake scenarios.

Despite finding the right reads a couple of times, Vitality couldn't break HEROIC's streak while Ismail "⁠refrezh⁠" Ali stepped up with a few key multikills on the A bombsite, helping pull his team over the finish line as they came back with seven in a row.

Nothing is set in stone yet after three rounds of play, but the first group of ESL Pro League is beginning to shape up, with HEROIC sitting at the top of the group and three teams tied for second place at the moment. Meanwhile, Spirit and Bad News Bears only have an outside chance to still go through with zero wins to their names in three matches thus far.

Below you can see the current standings: