HEROIC punch ticket to Major over GamerLegion

Snax's side will rue the number of rounds they lost to force-buys as they are cast down to the Last Chance qualifier.

HEROIC are through to PGL Major Copenhagen after securing the final spot out of Europe RMR B, punishing numerous mistakes and sloppy rounds from GamerLegion to secure a 2-0 victory (13-5 Overpass, 13-9 Mirage).

The Norwegian organization had to rebuild their roster in the off-season following the departures of Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller, Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard, and Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund, with the loss of their core and ranking meaning they had to start their Major campaign from the open qualifiers. Expectations of the new lineup were middling coming into the season, but wins over Astralis, BIG, Vitality, and GamerLegion at IEM Katowice showed promise ahead of the team's RMR bid.

Despite difficult losses against Vitality and Spirit, the Damjan "⁠kyxsan⁠" Stoilkovski-led side beat two Danish teams, Preasy and Astralis, in the early rounds of play in Romania, and have now earned a spot at René "⁠TeSeS⁠" Madsen and Rasmus "⁠sjuush⁠" Beck's home Major following their win over GamerLegion.

"It feels very good," TeSeS said with a large smile on his face in a post-match interview. "It felt really good with the old team, of course, but now it's a new team and you don't know your level. It's a whole new beginning so getting it over the line is so good. We have also met some good teams here and proved our level somewhat, but we still have so much to improve on.

"A lot of people from the outside doubted us. We have Guy, NertZ, that is really a star player and Rookie of the Year, but other than that we don't have really big names and everyone from the outside kinda doubted the lineup itself. But I think most people have been kinda impressed with our results and how competitive we are, and I can only promise you it's going to be even better for the future and we're going to improve much more than we are now."

The Danish rifler also touched on the satisfaction of making it through to the Major while Astralis, who were embroiled in controversy after stavn and jabbi joined from HEROIC, may well miss out with just one spot left in the hyper-competitive Last Chance qualifier where GamerLegion will also compete.

"I don't know if it makes the win sweeter, but it's kinda fun to see that [Astralis] are losing, that's just how it is," TeSeS said. "Mentally for me, it's just fun to see that they're not really succeeding."

GamerLegion took the fight to Overpass again at the start of the series, where they had demolished HEROIC 13-5 in Poland, and started on the right foot with a 3-0 lead.

Once Guy "⁠NertZ⁠" Iluz and company had rifles in hand, however, the tables quickly turned, and numerous opening kills from HEROIC throttled GamerLegion's defaults and executes round after round. Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski's side only tallied two more rounds for the rest of the map, including a pistol win after the side swap, with HEROIC closing out the game 13-5 to give their opponents the same treatment they'd received in Katowice.

Mirage began in a similar fashion as GamerLegion won their third pistol of the series, but struggled again in the gun rounds. HEROIC established a 5-3 lead on the attack with some fantastic entries, with sjuush in particular shining for his side and adding a 1vs3 clutch to put his team ahead at the break, 7-5.

HEROIC finally tallied their first pistol win after a squandered post-plant from GamerLegion let an advantage slip away, but force-buy wars quickly ensued as the teams battled back and forth for control.

Advantageous rounds were lost on either end, but HEROIC came out ahead of the brawl after going flawless in a round with just a saved M4A1-S and MP9. From there, victory came swift for kyxsan's men, with GamerLegion only tallying one more round before HEROIC booked their spot at the Major, 13-9.