BIG knock ENCE out of BLAST Fall Final contention

The German side were in good spirits as they reached the final of the Showdown.

BIG have eliminated ENCE from BLAST Fall Showdown after a convincing 2-0 victory on Ancient (16-9) and Anubis (16-10). The Germans are playing from their bootcamp in Berlin and their hard work has paid off with a win over the #2 team in the world.

BIG will now face the winner of G2-Cloud9 for a spot at November's BLAST Premier Fall Final in Copenhagen as they look to complete their underdog run.

The result means that Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer will have to wait for his first arena event in Denmark, a disappointing end to CS:GO for ENCE.

"They played really well, we were not so good," Snappi told James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks after the game. "It was a combination of them playing to the highest level they can and winning all four pistols. Just a tough game for us, it felt like I got insta-headshotted every round."

ENCE were out of sorts from the get go on Ancient, unable to string two rounds together until the end of the half and falling to three half-buys. Captain Snappi has been suffering with a fever and only posted one kill in the first thirteen rounds, while star rifler Guy "⁠NertZ⁠" Iluz also struggled playing on high ping from his home in Israel.

Things did not improve for ENCE after half-time, letting BIG close it out 16-9. Elias "⁠s1n⁠" Stein was in particularly good form, able to construct several multi-kills on the B bombsite and continuing his strong online level in 2023.

Anubis began like Ancient did, with a BIG pistol win and ENCE failing to put a real streak together after losing to yet another half buy. Eetu "⁠sAw⁠" Saha and Snappi's men lost the second pistol too, making it 0/4 for the series.

A 13-7 lead ensued for BIG, one that translated into a smart 16-10 victory to cap an impressive day for BIG — who were one step ahead throughout the best of three.

"ENCE played a bit differently," Mateusz "⁠mantuu⁠" Wilczewski said after the game. "They didn't play the same as in EPL. In both maps, we could read what they were doing. Even if we lost the round we were reading them, but they just headshot us. We knew where they were all the time."