Heroic make IEM Cologne playoffs with win over Monte

The Danes were pushed to the limit in three of the four halves played, but were too much for Monte in the end.

HEROIC have sealed their spot in the Lanxess Arena for the first time in their history, beating Monte on Mirage (16-14) and Overpass (16-11) to do so.

The Danes progress to take on ENCE for a chance at a semi-final berth on Tuesday at 19:30 , with the loser instead starting the playoffs in the quarter-finals. Monte on the other hand will do battle with Cloud9 in the lower bracket, with the loser being eliminated from the tournament. That match will go down on Monday at 19:30 .

Date	Matches
IEM Cologne 2023
31/07/2023	Cloud9 19:30 Monte	Match
01/08/2023	ENCE 20:25 HEROIC	Match

Eyes were firmly on HEROIC in this one, after Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller came under fire for his yelling towards The MongolZ in their matchup earlier in the event. He was still vocal during this match, but not quite as much as usual, and he mentioned his efforts to reign it in during a post-match interview on broadcast.

The Danish IGL went on to state that he did feel trash talk was "part of the game," and that he only got so vocal against The MongolZ because they pushed his team so hard. It will be interesting to see how the oft-fired-up captain behaves in future.

Turning to their series with Monte, the Danes kicked off Mirage 0-4 down due to incessant force-buying, but once they got their economy in order, they dominated the remainder of the half. They struggled badly on their offense to get going as Monte’s individuals were on fire, the Danes even losing to pistols at one point having finally gotten on the board. Better calling towards the end of the half led to a five-round streak at the end of the map, granting HEROIC a narrow victory.

It seemed squandering a real chance to be 1-0 up in the series motivated Monte, as they came into Overpass with all guns blazing, despite it being one of their weaker maps. The majority-Ukrainian side stormed to a 7-2 lead thanks to some supreme defensive work from the likes of Viktor "⁠sdy⁠" Orudzhev, with another near full-eco victory helping drive them onwards to a convincing 10-5 half.

Unfortunately for Monte, the reason Overpass is not a fruitful battleground for them became apparent on their T side, as it was fairly one-dimensional and easy for HEROIC to read. Once cadiaN and co. got rolling, they got confident, and this confidence was the wind in their sails that allowed them to crush the offense time and time again. Monte could only muster a single offensive round, and HEROIC sealed a 16-11 victory to claim the series.