FURIA eliminate ENCE from PGL Major

FURIA passed their next test on the road to recovery from a 0-2 start to their Major campaign.

FURIA live to fight another day at PGL Major Copenhagen after beating ENCE 2-0 in the fourth round of play in the Opening Stage.

The Brazilians are now through to the do-or-die final round of the first stage despite a terrible start to the event, which saw them at the receiving end of best-of-one upsets with losses to Legacy and Lynn Vision. They previously sent KOI packing from the tournament.

"If it's the best FURIA [so far], for sure," Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo said to James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks following their latest victory with a laugh. "A much better version of ourselves in the last two games, and hoping for the third one so we can get the spot."

FURIA have Marcelo "⁠chelo⁠" Cespedes and Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato to thank for the two-map victory, as the duo carried with a 1.54 and 1.41 rating, respectively. Both converted momentum-shifting clutches throughout the series and the latter came away with the play of the match, a 1v3 that all but sealed ENCE's fate on the second map, Ancient, when they were on the verge of a comeback.

For ENCE, the loss marks the end of the road. The team around Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander has been eliminated from the Copenhagen Major with a 1-3 record, their only victory coming in overtime against KOI and the losses at the hands of three of the four Brazilian teams in attendance, Imperial, paiN and FURIA.

"Of course it does [sting]," said a devastated gla1ve to BanKs on the broadcast after the match. "The boys really wanted me to go to the Royal Arena and I really wanted it myself. We pushed ourselves a lot coming into this event, we tried everything we could, didn't really work out. Nothing really clicked."

The Polish-majority side were a far cry from the level that propelled them to the Spodek Arena at IEM Katowice a little over a month ago. Four out of five players finished the event below a 1.00 rating, but none suffered a drop quite as big as Paweł "⁠dycha⁠" Dycha.

The only remaining member of the previous ENCE roster had already been struggling to match the performances from his past team, but in Copenhagen he put up a dire 0.72 rating — his lowest ever at a LAN event and the lowest out of all players in the opening stage of the Major.