Imperial relegate 9z to Last Chance bracket in Malta

The Brazilians will take on Apeks on Friday, looking to avoid falling to the single-elimination bracket themselves.

Imperial have claimed their first victory at ESL Pro League Season 18 after taking down 9z 2-0 on Nuke (16-11) and Anubis (16-10).

Ricardo "⁠boltz⁠" Prass was key to his team's victory on the first map, but gave way to Vinicius "⁠VINI⁠" Figueiredo on Anubis as the in-game leader led by example on the CT side. The Brazilians' win secured their lower bracket survival in Group C and progression to the next round, where they'll face off against Apeks.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 18
15/09/2023	Apeks 19:30 Imperial	Match

9z have dropped to the Last Chance stage, and will now be fighting for tournament survival in the single-elimination bracket. Maximiliano "⁠max⁠" Gonzalez's men next match will be against M80, and will have to string together three best-of-three wins on the bounce if they want to qualify for the playoffs.

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The series got started on 9z's pick of Nuke with the South American mix's win on the pistol round, but their success was short-lived. Imperial responded immediately on the following force buy and stole the round with just few Deagles. VINI's men then ran away with the half, extending their defensive lead all the way to 10-5 at the break.

boltz was on fire on the CT side, registering a 2.02 rating and 10 opening kills in the first 15 rounds, and continued to perform to the same standard after making the switch to the offensive side. 9z woke up late and managed to string six consecutive rounds to slow down Imperial, before eventually conceding their own map pick 11-16.

Anubis started off similarly to Nuke as 9z claimed the first pistol round, and Imperial replied with a force buy victory immediately after. The Brazilians were very successful on the offense, thanks in part to Henrique "⁠HEN1⁠" Teles and Jhonatan "⁠JOTA⁠" Willian's fragging output during the 11-4 half.

9z switched sides on the back foot, but quickly found a rhythm on the T side, slowly clawing back at their deficit all the way to 10-12 before Imperial were able to reply. It was all over for max's team once VINI got his hands on the AWP, as the captain locked down the sites to power his team to a 16-10 victory.