Heroic trounce Riders in EPL S17 Group B opening round

The Danes are off to a stellar start after an easy debut in Malta with a clean 2-0 victory.

HEROIC, the ESL Pro League Season 17 Group B favorites, gave Movistar Riders a proper beating in their opening series in Malta. The Danes won amply on Ancient (16-6) before finishing the deed on Overpass (16-5) to move on to the next round of the upper bracket.

The Spanish side came to the tournament with recent victories over Sprout and Spirit at the CCT Central Europe Malta Finals, where they also lost to ENCE and Bad News Eagles, but did not show any further hints of a return to form against the world’s second best team after months in the mud that at one point brought their winrate to below 10% in three months.

Movistar Riders have below a 50% winrate on all of the maps they play, a hard veto, but it was on Ancient that they decided to start the series. A tough call, with a 0-3 record, although HEROIC’s 25% in four matches was not much better, but the Danes did not struggle more than in the very beginning of the series map to turn their 1-3 record into a 2-3.

"I guess it was the underdog mentality," Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller said in the post-game interview of the way the veto went. He expressed the way Riders must have thought: "‘If we play to our strengths and to their strengths, we’ll probably lose, so let’s get out somewhere a bit more crazy.’"

Heroic didn’t break a sweat in their 2-0 victory over Riders

Two plants in the first two rounds on the attack gave Movistar Riders some economic staying power early on despite losing back-to-back afterplant situations, but their efforts became more and more disjointed as the half went on. The early close rounds became less and less close and it didn’t help that David "⁠dav1g⁠" Granado Bermudo started out with a 0-9 before his first frag in what ended up a 3-12 thrashing at the switch.

Alejandro "⁠mopoz⁠" Fernández-Quejo Cano hiding inside a smoke and downing three players in an afterplant situation on the A site kept his squad alive early on int he second half, but just briefly as the second guns were in play for HEROIC it was easy for cadiaN and his men. The Danes put up a 4-1 scoreline after losing the opening two rounds and closed it out 16-6.

It went from bad to worse for Movistar Riders as they went onto Overpass, HEROIC’s top map. Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund and company ran circles around the Spaniards. The 20-year-old rifler was particularly hot with 18 kills on the attack at the half while none of his counterparts mustered double digits in a futile 1-14 showing.

Movistar Riders once again won the second pistol round to stay alive, but the gargantuan effort needed to make a comeback of such proportions was not within reach of Galder "⁠bladE⁠" Barcena’s men. Ultimately, they went down in humiliating fashion, giving up a 5vs3 superiority by rotating down to the B site after a one for one trade with not enough time to plant the bomb, handing HEROIC the easy 16-5.

HEROIC will now go on to play the winner of BIG vs. Complexity, the loser of which will meet the Spanish squad in the group's lower bracket. FURIA and Imperial will debut in Pro League at 19:30 in a double-header also featuring SAW vs. MOUZ.

ESL Pro League Season 17Best of 3

HEROIC

Matchpage

2

0

1st March 2023

Movistar Riders

16

Ancient

6

16

Overpass

5

HEROIC	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Martin 'stavn' Lundstavn	45 - 22	+23	110.0	88.4%	1.72
René 'TeSeS' MadsenTeSeS	34 - 25	+9	90.0	83.7%	1.40
Casper 'cadiaN' MøllercadiaN	30 - 21	+9	79.4	79.1%	1.32
Jakob 'jabbi' Nygaardjabbi	33 - 21	+12	78.2	83.7%	1.30
Rasmus 'sjuush' Becksjuush	29 - 24	+5	64.6	76.7%	1.13

Movistar Riders	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Alejandro 'mopoz' Fernández-Quejo Canomopoz	30 - 37	-7	84.3	58.1%	0.90
Antonio 'MartinezSa' MartinezMartinezSa	23 - 33	-10	53.3	65.1%	0.83
David 'dav1g' Granado Bermudodav1g	20 - 34	-14	57.9	65.1%	0.75
Pere 'sausol' Solsona Saumellsausol	22 - 35	-13	58.3	58.1%	0.68
Alejandro 'alex' Masanetalex	17 - 32	-15	56.9	51.2%	0.63