ECSTATIC head to Elimination Stage over Imperial

Danish fans can still dream about seeing a full-Danish roster in the Royal Arena as ECSTATIC continue their journey in Copenhagen.

ECSTATIC have claimed a spot in the Elimination Stage of PGL Major Copenhagen thanks to a 2-1 victory over Imperial, winning Anubis (13-4) and Vertigo (13-9) either side of a loss on Inferno (10-13).

ECSTATIC surprised by making the Major and have now surprised even further with their Elimination Stage qualification, their fundamentally solid brand of Counter-Strike and deep stratbook guiding them to success.

One could expect a lack of firepower to be ECSTATIC's problem but Tobias "⁠kraghen⁠" Kragh Jensen stepped up with the highest-rated LAN map of his career to carry Anubis, whilst Magnus "⁠Nodios⁠" Olsen's consistent output ensured the Danes will continue their fairytale journey at their home Major.

Imperial meanwhile head to the 2-2 pool for a do-or-die match after two lacklustre offensive halves. On their own choice of Anubis they couldn't manage a single round in five attempts, and they suffered an 1-11 thrashing on the T half of Vertigo.

Their firepower is not in question but Imperial seem to lack for strategic depth when tackling some of the more well-versed European sides, something ECSTATIC exposed throughout this series.

The first map of the series, Anubis, was a blowout in favor of ECSTATIC, with kraghen in particular shining brightly. The young Dane produced an ace with a hero AK to kickstart his team's offensive efforts, and he continued to frag out as ECSTATIC strolled to an easy 13-4 win.

Inferno was a far tighter battle, with both teams trading rounds back and forth as often is the case on the map. Imperial managed to harness their apparent firepower advantage to get over the line on their offensive half, with Kaiky "⁠noway⁠" Santos in particular providing impactful frags.

Vertigo was another ECSTATIC domination, bar a cosmetic second-half comeback from Imperial. Nodios and Jonas "⁠Queenix⁠" Dideriksen were everywhere in the first half as ECSTATIC's wide range of CT setups earned them an 11-1 advantage, and although the pressure caused the Danes to lose a few favorable situations in the second half, they eventually closed the map out to seal their progression to the next stage.