ENCE claim fifth Major playoffs spot over Heroic

Only three more playoffs spots are left with some big names still in the undecided pool as we're slowly heading into the final round of play in the Legends Stage.

ENCE have claimed the fifth spot in the PGL Major Antwerp playoffs after securing their third win in the Legends Stage with a 2-1 victory over HEROIC, joining Spirit, Natus Vincere, FaZe, and Ninjas in Pyjamas in the bracket stage.

HEROIC are now sitting on a 2-2 record and head into the final round of play, where the Danes will meet either FURIA or Vitality, depending on how the final match of the fourth round goes between Cloud9 and Imperial.

ENCE go 3-1 in the Legends Stage and advance to the playoffs

HEROIC entered the series looking red hot and ready to plow through a shaken ENCE side on Overpass, but after the first eight rounds went the way of the Danes on the offense, the tide turned as the CTs finally found an answer and took over the game.

From down 0-8 Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer & co. claimed seven in a row before adding three on the trot to kick off the second half and take their first lead in the game. It only lasted a couple of rounds, though, as after a failed last-second retake of B HEROIC made up for it with just pistols to end the massive streak.

From there, Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller's team rallied to map point without too many issues, but closing the game proved difficult. Thanks to a few openers and a 1v1 clutch from Olek "⁠hades⁠" Miskiewicz, ENCE took the map to the 30th round, when HEROIC found their way to the last round as they went for an aggressive play through monster to grab an early advantage and drove it home.

Mirage started out in a similar vein, with HEROIC gaining early momentum after a forcebuy win in the second round. Once again, though, despite falling behind ENCE kept themselves in the fight with a couple of key rounds from hades, and later on in the half it was Pavle "⁠Maden⁠" Bošković who stepped up to the plate to make it only a one-round difference.

Heroic will have one more chance to qualify in the last round

HEROIC ran away with the second pistol and converted it into an 11-7 lead, when they started running head-first into a wall up against a stalwart ENCE defense. hades, Paweł "⁠dycha⁠" Dycha, and Maden were firing on all cylinders in defense of the A bombsite, and the European team went on a 9-1 run to equalize the series and force Nuke.

ENCE finished it off with a clinical affair on the decider, getting off to a flying start on the CT side and never looking back. A Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi 1v2 clutch got them on the board early in the pistol round and that was the closest HEROIC got to a round win across most of the first nine rounds, with an immaculate defense seeing the European mix build up a 12-3 cushion going over to the T side. Closing out the game was just a formality once ENCE also won the second pistol, and they did so just a few rounds later thanks to a forcebuy win and a 1v2 clutch from dycha.

PGL Major Antwerp 2022Best of 3

ENCE

Matchpage

2

1

16th May 2022

HEROIC

14

Overpass

16

16

Mirage

12

16

Nuke

6

ENCE	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Paweł 'dycha' Dychadycha	68 - 52	+16	91.3	73.8%	1.30
Lotan 'Spinx' GiladiSpinx	61 - 52	+9	80.0	73.8%	1.17
Olek 'hades' Miskiewiczhades	53 - 46	+7	64.7	68.8%	1.04
Pavle 'Maden' BoškovićMaden	56 - 64	-8	83.3	70.0%	0.98
Marco 'Snappi' PfeifferSnappi	46 - 54	-8	67.5	67.5%	0.93

HEROIC	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
René 'TeSeS' MadsenTeSeS	56 - 56	0	80.4	77.5%	1.12
Martin 'stavn' Lundstavn	56 - 55	+1	79.8	66.2%	1.06
Casper 'cadiaN' MøllercadiaN	56 - 53	+3	68.9	68.8%	1.06
Rasmus 'sjuush' Becksjuush	55 - 57	-2	73.8	70.0%	1.04
Ismail 'refrezh' Alirefrezh	44 - 63	-19	62.2	70.0%	0.83