Heroic surpass NIP 2-1 with two strong T-side showings

HEROIC started their BLAST Premier Fall Final campaign on home soil with a convincing victory over the Ninjas despite losing the first map.

HEROIC played brilliant attacking Counter-Strike in their opening BLAST Premier Fall Final opener, winning 12 T-side rounds on both Ancient and Overpass to turn around the 0-1 scoreline after losing Ninjas in Pyjamas's Inferno map pick to a 2-1 victory.

The squad under the orders of Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller came into the BLAST event on home soil, a bastion for Astralis and their fans in past iterations, as the only Danish representative this time around. They are doing so after a successful campaign at the IEM Rio Major, where they made the grand final unlocking a new milestone on Counter-Strike's biggest stage.

"Hopefully over time more people will support us," Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund said in the post-match interview when talking about his hopes for more big finishes and the chance to play in front of the home crowd at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen.

The Major finalists spared no time to impose their will on the CT side of Inferno against an uninspired Ninjas in Pyjamas that struggled to open their way into any bombsite. It wasn’t until the eighth round that Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner and Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin turned a 2vs5 into a win as they watched cadiaN fail the bomb defusal from their death cams. NIP then burst out after breaking the seal and tallied seven of the last eight rounds to bring the half within one.

The second half started off with Rasmus "⁠sjuush⁠" Beck nearly pulling off a 1vs3 clutch, but Patrick "⁠es3tag⁠" Hansen denied him as the last player alive to put 8-8 on the scoreboard. The two teams then got entangled in a back-and-forth brawl until Ninjas in Pyjamas settled in on the CT side and defended successfully three times in a row to hit match point, 15-12. Two rounds later, the Swedish-majority lineup bagged their map pick to take the lead in the series.

HEROIC, who have been praised for their mental game after defeating FURIA at the IEM Rio Major despite nearly choking a ten round lead, came into their Ancient pick unfazed after the close Inferno loss and flew off to a 6-0 lead on the attack. cadiaN and his men kept their foes up against the ropes for the entire first half and, carrying a 12-3 lead at the switch, they closed the map out without a fuss 16-6.

The Danes carried their momentum to Overpass, where they once again started on the attacking side and put on the pressure from the very beginning. They started with a 5-0 lead before Ninjas in Pyjamas could retaliate, but the Nordic combine wasn’t able to claw back into the half as HEROIC doubled their lead on the way to another crushing 12-3 half. REZ downed all five CTs to kick off the second half of the decider map with an ace, but to no avail as HEROIC struck back in the forcebuy to win out 16-4.

HEROIC will now go up against FaZe, who steamrolled OG earlier in the day, in the Group A upper bracket final on Thursday. The winner will go on to the playoff semi-finals, while the loser will start the final stage of the tournament in Copenhagen from the quarter-final. In the lower bracket Ninjas in Pyjamas will play for survival against Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković and company.