HEET, FTW secure ESL Pro League group stage berths

The ESL Pro League Conference stage in Sweden has come to an end with six squads through to the league's group stage.

HEET and FTW have booked their tickets to the upcoming ESL Pro League Season 16 group stage after taking the final two spots up for grabs at ESL Pro League Conference in Jönköping, Sweden. Becoming the last two teams to qualify, they did so through a grueling lower bracket, as both squads had fallen in the first round of play.

HEET made it to the Pro League group stage the hard way

HEET qualified by taking down their Falcons countrymen in a three-map series that started out going the way of Bryan "⁠Maka⁠" Canda and company, who won their Dust2 map pick before HEET brought things back to even on Nuke and finally eased through to the next stage of ESL Pro League with a comfortable victory on the Vertigo decider.

Prior to today’s match, HEET’s only defeat came in the opening series last Thursday against Endpoint, after which Alexandre "⁠bodyy⁠" Pianaro and his men went on a clean run in the lower bracket with 2-0 victories over Encore and HUMMER. HEET’s stand-out players at the event were Aurélien "⁠afro⁠" Drapier and Lucas "⁠Lucky⁠" Chastang, with 1.20 and 1.18 ratings, respectively.

The last team to book their ticket to the group stage from Conference was the youngest team at the event, FTW, who average only 21 years of age. They did so by taking out Illuminar in their final series, having beaten ORDER and Sprout in their previous lower bracket matches following an opening loss to Eternal Fire.

The Portuguese squad completed their Cinderella run after making waves in Iberia, where they won ESL Masters against the two regional titans, Movistar Riders and SAW, and have since been the rise in the world rankings going all the way to 37th place from a lowly 173rd in March.

Only four spots are now left to be confirmed in the 24 team Pro League, which will be decided by team’s placings in the ESL world ranking. With the Conference stage now done and dusted, the group stage will take place right after the player break, on August 31-October 2.

The ESL Pro League teams confirmed after the Conference stage are:

FaZe
ENCE
Natus Vincere
Ninjas in Pyjamas
FURIA
G2
fnatic
Evil Geniuses
Eternal Fire
HEET
ESL Ranking
ESL Ranking

Vitality
BIG
Astralis
Liquid
MOUZ
Complexity
Endpoint
MIBR
Outsiders
FTW
ESL Ranking
ESL Ranking