Heroic breeze past GamerLegion; secure semi-final spot at Gamers8

The Sanzhar "⁠neaLaN⁠" Iskhakov-led squad has been eliminated in the second knockout round.

HEROIC have punched their ticket to Gamers8's semi-final after defeating GamerLegion 2-1. The Danes secured another top-four finish after a fast-paced match, and will fight the winner of Cloud9 vs. ENCE for a spot in the grand final.

Date	Matches
Gamers8 2023
19/08/2023	HEROIC 16:30 ENCE	Match

The Danes started off the series in red-hot form by steamrolling GamerLegion 16-3 on their own map pick of Inferno. The Danes executed a fantastic CT half on the back of a stellar René "⁠TeSeS⁠" Madsen performance before closing the affair on the offense without dropping a round.

neaLaN's men responded with a 16-9 win on Vertigo, punishing HEROIC's gamble in the veto. Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström and company decided to pick a map unfamiliar to both teams and paid the price, especially as Sebastian "⁠volt⁠" Maloș went supernova in the first half with a 1.99 rating and an 8-1 record in opening duels.

"It was just bad teamplay, we played really bad on Vertigo," TeSeS later commented in the post-match interview. "All the plays you need to do in the middle of the round we didn't do and we didn't coordinate it that well."

HEROIC quickly took back the initiative on Overpass, smashing GamerLegion on the CT side while TeSeS continued to shine. The Europeans only claimed one round in the first half, and only managed to salvage a 7-16 scoreline thanks to a short resurgence after the break.