ENCE best Vitality to continue upset run at EPL

Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi was unable to get the better of his former teammates.

ENCE defeated Vitality in the final quarter-final of ESL Pro League Season 17 with a 2-1 scoreline to continue their run at the tournament after previously beating the number-one ranked team in the world, G2. Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer and company lost their pick of Nuke (14-16) but came back with wins on Overpass (16-11) and Vertigo (16-14). New addition Guy "⁠NertZ⁠" Iluz proved his worth on the decider, putting up 23 kills as well as a miraculous 1vs4 clutch in the first half.

The European combine now moves on to face Cloud9 in the semi-final on Saturday, where they will fight for a place in the final of the $850,000 event.

For Vitality, this is the end of the road in Malta. The team played with Audric "⁠JACKZ⁠" Jug in place of Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen during the group stage, and the team won three matches in a row with the Frenchman putting up great performances and a 1.26 rating. In the quarter-finals they were once again able to field a full roster but were bested in a nail-biting clash, with their focus now moving to the European RMR, starting on April 11.

Vitality got off to an impressive start on the CT side on Nuke, turning around the opening exchanges after losing out the pistol and following conversion. They were able to weather ENCE's trademark rushes and soon found themselves 6-4 up. Just as it looked like ENCE were about the get back into the game, Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut and dupreeh teamed up to win a 2vs4 situation to keep themselves ahead. That proved to be the boost their CT side needed, as they limited ENCE's defense to just one round and closed out the first half 10-5.

ZywOo was the star of the show at the start of the half, hitting two crisp shots in the pistol round and winning a 1vs2 clutch in an anti-eco to put Vitality 13-5 up. ENCE weren't ready to back down, however, and started clawing back at the deficit with a five-round streak after Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García finally got an AWP on the map. Vitality stabilized and reached map point first at 15-13, and secured Nuke in thirty rounds to take the lead in the series.

Overpass was up next, where Pavle "⁠Maden⁠" Bošković got ENCE off to a hot start with a quad-kill in the pistol. Vitality were very slow to get on the board, posting just five kills in the first six rounds of play without a single round win to their name. ZywOo helped open up the B site with a triple to secure Vitality's first round, but that did little to change the momentum of the game. ENCE returned to winning ways and put up an imperious CT side to post 13 rounds at the half, with SunPayus providing most of the impact by putting up 25 kills and a 2.56 rating.

ENCE continued their rampage on the T side, winning a dominant pistol round to reach 14. Spinx got a quad-kill to prolong the inevitable in the second-round forcebuy, and the Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire-led team started reducing the deficit. dupreeh then won a 1vs1 clutch on low health and got Vitality into double digits at 10-14, instilling even more belief into his team. ENCE got themselves over the line eventually, though, as a pistol rush of the A site netted them a 16-11 victory.

Vitality started Vertigo by winning the pistol and then needing Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif to clutch a 1vs3 against a half-buy. ENCE forced again in the next and won the round, with the scoreline standing at 6-3 after NertZ showed incredible trigger discipline to win a 1vs4. That was as good as it got for ENCE, however, as economical troubles meant they didn't post a single round in the remainder of the half and went into the offense three rounds behind.

ENCE once again won out the opening force-buy wars to quickly tie up the scores at 10-10, putting their economy in a strong position. With the game on a knife's edge, ZywOo woke up and got nine kills in two rounds to put Vitality 14-11 ahead, reaching 30 kills in the process. With their back against the wall, newest addition NertZ stood up to the plate. He first clutched a 1vs1 to break Vitality's money to put tie up the scores at 14-14, before finding an incredible triple through smoke to get ENCE over the line, 16-14, and book their spot in the EPL S17 semi-finals.