Monte eliminate Heroic from EPL group stage

The Danes had a disastrous showing in Malta and failed to make the playoffs following three series losses.

Monte kept themselves alive in the Last Chance Stage of Group B at ESL Pro League after seeing to the elimination of HEROIC in a 2-1 series (16-10 Mirage, 20-22 Overpass, 16-10 Ancient).

The Danes did not look like themselves for much of the series, and the same can be said for the majority of games they played while in Malta. The team's floor dropped to a level we've never seen before, and their usual consistency when playing teams in group stages completely fell away.

The result is such an outlier for Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller's men that this marks only their second-ever group stage elimination since adding Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard in June 2022. Their previous early exit came at IEM Cologne 2022 just after the Dane's addition (and not counting BLAST World Final, where HEROIC had to use a stand-in).

cadiaN's words ahead of the tournament didn't inspire a ton of confidence in the team's potential, with the in-game leader revealing he was "concerned" and that he felt the team were "not playing up to the level that we're supposed to and that we're capable of."

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There was also a small dip in individual form from their players that cadiaN pointed to, "I'm not talking a lot, just 1% or 2%," he had said at the time. Their run in Malta proved it may well be more than that, however, as HEROIC ended up losing games to teams ranked No. 22, 14, and 11, and only recorded a win over Rooster.

Viktor "⁠sdy⁠" Orudzhev and Sergiy "⁠DemQQ⁠" Demchenko were asked on the desk after the game how HEROIC compared today to their previous matches against them, and both players admitted that the Danes were not playing to their normal level. "Before they were outplaying us so much, especially on their CT side. They were pushing us always from behind, and we didn't feel it this time at all," sdy said.

"The previous game against Heroic was much harder," DemQQ added. "They outplayed us on every aspect, but this game it was not feeling like before. This game it was much easier to play, but still, with three maps it was a tough game."

HEROIC's lack of cohesion was evident early on Mirage, even though they initially took the lead on the map. An 8-3 scoreline gave way to a comeback effort from Monte, though, and the Ukrainian-majority put up a stalwart CT side where they gave up just one round to secure a 16-10 win.

HEROIC had a similarly strong start on Overpass, but again started dropping rounds as Monte came alive. sdy won a pivotal 2v5 to swing momentum into his team's favor late into the map, which helped them reach map point at 15-14, but a fumble to pistols allowed HEROIC to force overtime and push the series to a third.

Ancient saw a return to the mean for HEROIC, who showed some signs of life at the end of Overpass, and they repeatedly got caught out on timings and dropped players in a number of advantageous situations.

Monte used that to run away with the series victory, taking the map 16-10 to secure a spot in the Last Chance Stage final where they will play the winner of MIBR vs. Evil Geniuses for a spot in the EPL playoffs.