9z send M80 home in Malta

The North American squad exit the tournament without a single map victory to their name.

9z have eliminated M80 from ESL Pro League S18 in a two-map series. The South Americans just about edged out Nuke (16-14) before stealing away Inferno with a 16-13 scoreline to keep themselves alive in the Maltese tournament.

"We came to this match trying to not think much about the opponent. We tried to think about us and do our things correctly, and that's what happened," said IGL Maximiliano "⁠max⁠" Gonzalez after their first victory in Group C. 9z now require two wins to lock in a playoff spot on Sunday, and their first test will come against the loser of Apeks vs. fnatic.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 18
17/09/2023	9z 12:30 Apeks	Match

For M80, this is the end of the road in Malta. The North Americans came incredibly close to winning a map with two 14-16 losses to 9z and 5yclone alongside an overtime defeat to Apeks, but ultimately came short and exited the group in last place.

9z started their map pick of Nuke with a pistol round win, and the South American squad weathered the M80 forcebuys with the help of David "⁠dav1deuS⁠" Tapia Maldonado's 1vs3 clutch. That helped them take a 6-0 lead on the offensive side before M80 adapted their Outside hold and got back into the game. Michael "⁠Swisher⁠" Schmid was especially effective after that and led the charge for his team that went into the second half just one round behind.

Another hot start by 9z meant they reached map point first at 15-11 after a botched post-plant situation by M80. They struggled to close out the map but did so in the 30th round to move the series to Inferno.

M80 got their first pistol round to start their map pick and converted it to a 5-0 lead. 9z came back into the game and tied up the scores at five, but Mario "⁠malbsMd⁠" Samayoa proved too much to handle for the South American squad. The Guatemalan put up 19 kills in the first half and was by far the highest fragger on the server.

He wasn't able to carry his team on the CT side, however, as 9z negated M80's pistol round conversion to tie up the scores at 11 and never looked back. max and company secured a 16-13 victory on Inferno to keep themselves alive for the final day of competition of Group C in Malta.