ENCE best Copenhagen Flames to march into semi-finals

The Danes put up a solid fight on both maps, but ultimately ENCE came out with a convincing victory.

ENCE continued their recent meteoric rise by confidently booking their spot in the PGL Major Antwerp semi-finals with a 2-0 victory over Copenhagen Flames, besting the Danes 16-10 on Vertigo and 16-12 on Nuke.

Copenhagen Flames were dangerous throughout the series, making rounds close and picking up some impressive clutches, but ultimately they couldn't consistently match the level of ENCE.

Vertigo was the first map of the series, the pick of Copenhagen Flames, and the Danes were left ruing their choice. The game opened as a tight battle, ENCE's CT pistol win and follow up quickly answered, with Copenhagen Flames incredibly successful in opening duels but ENCE thriving in the late-round, particularly Paweł "⁠dycha⁠" Dycha. The Pole was the key factor in turning the half in ENCE's favour, a 4k with a hero M4 purchase breaking Copenhagen Flames momentum and allowing his team to go on to run up a convincing 12-3 lead at the half.

The Danes won their own CT pistol to give themselves a chance, and they set about mounting a comeback with the first five rounds in a row bringing the score back to 8-12. ENCE's high-octane T-side was not to be shut out, and they picked up three on the bounce to put themselves on map point. A couple of huge clutches from Rasmus "⁠Zyphon⁠" Nordfoss and Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard provided a stay of execution, but it wasn't enough to prevent ENCE closing out the map 16-10.

ENCE's pick of Nuke came up next and, starting on their offence, Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer and co. proved why they are #3 in the HLTV rankings right now. It appeared early in the half that Copenhagen Flames had won the force-buy wars, a huge play from Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi on a bad buy countered by an even better round from Fredrik "⁠roeJ⁠" Jørgensen with a CZ, and this allowed the Danes to run out to a 9-3 lead, albeit with some close calls.

Poetically it was another force-buy that got ENCE back into the game, and picking up the final three rounds gave the European side a very workable 6-9 score going into the second period.

A pistol win and conversion for ENCE put them in the drivers seat, but the force-buy wars continued as yet again both teams traded rounds to weak buys, Olek "⁠hades⁠" Miskiewicz deagle ringing true in one round before Nico "⁠nicoodoz⁠" Tamjidi did the same. Despite the scrappy nature of the map it was only ENCE who were managing to string rounds together, and a tragic whiff from roeJ in a key 1v2 spelled the end for Copenhagen Flames; ENCE duly closed out the map 16-12.