Heroic best Sangal in Fall Showdown, set up all-Danish final versus Astralis

The two Danish sides will lock horns as they look to take home the sole spot up for grabs at the $425,000 Fall Final.

HEROIC locked in a spot in the grand final of BLAST Premier Fall Showdown after taking down Sangal 2-0, winning Vertigo and Inferno with 16-11 scorelines. The Danes are set to face their compatriots of Astralis, guaranteeing that regardless of the outcome, there will be a home team at the Fall Final. The $425,000 LAN event is set to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, from November 23-27.

The two finalists last met at ESL Pro League Season 16, where HEROIC narrowly pulled ahead after a hard-fought 2-1 victory against their fellow Danes.

Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund was instrumental in getting HEROIC over the line, with the 20-year-old putting up a stellar 1.32 rating and a 89 ADR over the two-map series. René "⁠TeSeS⁠" Madsen came alive in his team's 16-11 win on Inferno, topping the scoreboard with 28 frags and a 1.63 rating on the map.

With this defeat, Sangal head home in 3-4th place, but can take solace in their performance throughout the tournament, which saw them out-muscle BIG in the opening round and reach double digits in both maps of their semi-final matchup versus HEROIC.

The action on the final semi-final of the event got underway on Sangal's pick of Vertigo, a predictable choice given it was the same map the European combine had edged out BIG on just two days prior. Sangal got the best-of-three off on the right foot, with a 1vs3 by Caner "⁠soulfly⁠" Kesici in the pistol round enabling the Europe side to run away with things and drum up an opening 6-0 lead on the T-side. Only at this point did HEROIC get on the board, the Danish side putting up a solid defensive wall as they went on a six-round streak to tie things up. HEROIC's rebound continued towards the end of their CT-side, with the Danes adding two of the remaining three rounds to lead by one round at side swap. Robin "⁠ScrunK⁠" Röpke and soulfly were key in keeping their team in the running, the pair posting 16 and 14 kills, respectively, by the half's end.

HEROIC justified their tag as the clear-cut favourites once on the offence, winning four of the first five rounds to extend their advantage to 12-8. A lone round win for Sangal in the 21st kept them alive, but the Danish quintet soon answered right back, snatching control of the economy in the process to cruise their way to match point, 15-9. A two-round spree kept the European mix in the game a little while longer, but HEROIC rallied together in good time, clinically trading their way onto the B site in the final round to lock in a 16-11 victory and go 1-0 up in the series.

The series made its way to Inferno for the second map, where Sangal got off to an ideal 5-1 start on the CT-side thanks to even more strong fragging output by soulfly. Once again, the Danes started to claw their way back into the game, this time being spurred on by a 1vs2 from stavn in the eighth round, with back-to-back three-round streaks by HEROIC allowing the side to trail by just one round at the interval. TeSeS and stavn were HEROIC's best performers this time around, combining for 24 kills by the end of the Danes' T-side effort.

HEROIC took the lead for the first time in the map at the onset of the second half, nabbing the pistol round on the back of a late-round push up Banana before following this up with a handful of round wins to go 13-9 up. By now, the tides had fully swung into HEROIC's favour, with the Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller-led squad overturning a couple of sporadic round wins by Sangal with relative ease en route to their 2-0 victory, the final round being a strong statement as they added their 16th round on the board without suffering a single casualty.