Heroic trounce Rooster in EPL Group B opener

The Danes are off to their desired start in Malta with an easy 2-0 victory over Rooster.

All was quiet on the B stream, where massive favorites HEROIC made quick work of Rooster in their ESL Pro League Season 18 Group B opening series on Inferno (16-2) and Mirage (16-4).

Michael "⁠chelleos⁠" Hawkins and his men started the map off positively, with a pistol victory on attack in their Inferno map pick, but that quickly came crumbling down after a loss to a forcebuy in the second round. From there on out it was HEROIC, on the defense, who controlled every aspect of the map.

Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller even flexed with a 1vs3 clutch to get HEROIC on double digits, all the while digging Rooster deeper in the pit. The favorites gave up just one more round in a 13-2 half before closing the map out on the attack without a hitch, 16-2.

On Mirage there was a little more early resistance from Rooster, who started on the defense, but not much. Despite going down 0-2, a brief back-and-forth during four rounds kept things interesting until HEROIC again established their dominance as they cruised to an 11-4 half.

Rooster played a quick B attack to try and get one over the Danish squad after the half, but it was in vain as four post-plant kills by Rasmus "⁠sjuush⁠" Beck with the USP decided the round in his team's favor. Once again, as in the first map, HEROIC closed out the second half cleanly, ending it 16-4.

"If things go the way we expect them to and we win the first two games on the first two days, then we don't play for four days and we play a game for seeding," cadiaN told HLTV during the media day.

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So far, the expectations have been matched and HEROIC are now one match away from the playoffs. They will face the winner of BIG vs. Monte in the upper semi-final, while Rooster will play the loser of said series in the lower bracket.