ENCE eliminate Copenhagen Flames from BLAST Showdown

After trading map picks, ENCE put up a convincing performance on Ancient to close the series 2-1.

ENCE continued their current fantastic run of form by beating Copenhagen Flames 2-1 to continue their hunt for a BLAST Premier Spring Final spot, besting the Danes 16-7 on Vertigo, dropping Mirage 10-16 and finishing things 16-9 on Ancient.

Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi was absolutely vital to the European squad's success with a monstrous performance, particularly on Ancient. Copenhagen Flames struggled for consistent firepower, with Nico "⁠nicoodoz⁠" Tamjidi going missing on Vertigo and Ancient, and Fredrik "⁠roeJ⁠" Jørgensen struggling to find his usual success in openings.

The series opened on Vertigo, the pick of Copenhagen Flames, and the Danes were left rueing their map choice.

Starting off on the offense Flames struggled to get a foothold early in the half, ENCE winning the pistol and converting to a 6-0 lead. Throughout the half the Danes were overly reliant on roeJ finding openings at ramp to get their offense going, and as such ENCE were able to get to a comfortable 11-4 score going into the second period.

A second half pistol win and follow up round put ENCE in pole position to close out the map, and despite Copenhagen Flames picking up a streak of three off the back of the first gun round, the European squad were able to close their opponents map pick with a comfortable 16-7 score.

Mirage was the pick of ENCE, and the EU squad began on the offense. The individuals of Copenhagen Flames appeared to have woken up by this point, locking down sites effectively and leaving ENCE struggling to find a way in. A couple of high impact hero plays from Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer and Spinx earned their team a handful of rounds, but ENCE could only muster a 5-10 score going into the second period.

Flames managed to pick up the pistol and convert to start their offense, leaving them on 13 rounds and making a decider very likely. ENCE did manage to pick up the first gun round and three more on the bounce to threaten a comeback, but a key 1v2 clutch from nicoodoz stopped the recovery before it could gain real momentum, and the Danes closed out the map 16-10 to force the decider of Ancient.

Copenhagen Flames started on the unfavoured offensive side and struggled to get a foothold in the game at all, finding themselves unable to deal with ENCE's aggressive approach to holding lane and middle; Snappi and Spinx had monster performances in those two positions respectively. Towards the end of their offense the Danes managed to grab a few rounds to make things competitive, getting to a respectable 5-10 score going into the second period.

A thrown 4v2 situation in the pistol round made it seem like ENCE might quickly lose their advantage, but they broke back immediately in the next round and ran the score up to 13-6 to put Copenhagen Flames under immense pressure. The Danes managed to put a streak together when guns came up to get to 9-13, but a spectacular ace from Spinx was the beginning of the end; ENCE duly closed the game out 16-9.