Movistar Riders knock Sprout out of CCT Central Europe Malta Finals

The Spaniards have another shot at making the playoffs, but will be the clear underdogs against Spirit.

Movistar Riders survived their first test in the CCT Central Europe Malta Finals group stage lower bracket with a 2-0 victory over Sprout to secure a spot in the Group B decider match.

The Spaniards have a 8.3% win rate in the past three months and have struggled ever since Antonio "⁠MartinezSa⁠" Martinez and Pere "⁠sausol⁠" Solsona Saumell were brought into the starting lineup, while Sprout's own issues are evident in their current six match losing streak as they play with their coach, Danny "⁠BERRY⁠" Krüger, while finding a permanent IGL.

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The Riders are facing much scrutiny among their fans after a horrendous end of 2022 and beginning of 2023, but they have said that sensations in practice have been good even if so far it hasn’t translated to any tangible results in official matches. A strong showing against Spirit would go a long way in dispelling the team's ghosts ever since star AWPer Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García departed the team.

Alejandro "⁠alex⁠" Masanet and company recently bombed out of the BLAST.tv Paris Major RMR’s open qualifier, which is the second time this happens after they missed the IEM Road to Rio RMR, and lost their opening CCT series against former teammate SunPayus and his ENCE — who are fielding an academy player as a stand-in in Malta before Guy "⁠NertZ⁠" Iluz joins the squad.

The Group B elimination series began on Inferno, Sprout’s pick, but straight out of the gates it was Movistar Riders who showed that they were more than comfortable on their most played map. Starting on the CT side, Alejandro "⁠mopoz⁠" Fernández-Quejo Cano and company got off to an 11-4 half.

sausol got a triple in third round of the second half to put Movistar Riders on the board and it was smooth sailing from there on out as the international squad, now on the CT side, only put up a single defense before falling 7-16.

Things got tighter on Movistar Riders’ own pick, Overpass, in large part due to an excellent performance by Laurențiu "⁠lauNX⁠" Țârlea. The Romanian youngster was the second-highest rated player on his team in their 9-6 defense, but more importantly he was the engine that almost got Sprout across the finish line on the attack.

BERRY’s men could not close things out on the T side of Overpass to force a decider, however, getting up to 14-12 before losing four rounds in a row to a sausol-powered Movistar Riders that are clear from a last-place finish that would further shatter an already shaky confidence.

Date	Matches
CCT Central Europe Malta Finals 1
17/02/2023	Spirit 21:10 Movistar Riders	Match

Movistar Riders are now set to face Spirit in the Group B decider match at 20:30 for a spot in the playoffs. The winner of that match will then face the top Group A seed, Bad News Eagles, in the tournament's semi-finals, while the loser will go home early alongside the two teams that have already been eliminated so far: HONORIS and Sprout.