HEROIC, ENCE bow out of EPL early

4-5-2024 20:45

Ninjas in Pyjamas stunned HEROIC despite using two academy stand-ins.

nicoodoz has been through the rumor mill after reports of HEROIC adding degster

HEROIC and ENCE are eliminated from ESL Pro League after struggling in losses against Ninjas in Pyjamas and FURIA respectively.

Rumors around the future of Nico "⁠nicoodoz⁠" Tamjidi in HEROIC were sparked halfway through the event, with Russian insider Aleksei "⁠OverDrive⁠" Birukov alleging that a move for replacement sniper Abdul "⁠degster⁠" Gasanov was initiated before the event had even begun.

Even with that cloud of uncertainty over the team, however, this result can only be seen as a dire failure for Eetu "⁠sAw⁠" Saha and Damjan "⁠kyxsan⁠" Stoilkovski's squad.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 19
30/04/2024	Ninjas in Pyjamas Finished 0:2 HEROIC	Match
02/05/2024	Complexity Finished 2:1 HEROIC	Match
03/05/2024	FlyQuest Finished 0:2 HEROIC	Match
03/05/2024	HEROIC Finished 1:2 BIG	Match
04/05/2024	Ninjas in Pyjamas Finished 2:1 HEROIC	Match

Elimination at the hands of BIG (No. 37) and Ninjas in Pyjamas (No. 54) represents a shock for a team that only narrowly missed out on playoffs at IEM Chengdu and Katowice.

nicoodoz, for his part, was much-improved in the server against Ninjas in Pyjamas (1.16 series rating) but there were still frequent misses on the AWP in an illustration of the need for a more stable permanent sniper.

Flashes of quality in pistol rounds, and in this 1v3 clutch, will be a boon for the Dane but it remains to be seen if he has done enough to stay the rumors around his departure.

A possible move for degster will also not solve several issues that reared their heads throughout a best-of-three in which NIP dictated the pace on both halves of their two map wins.

HEROIC's static CT play was a far cry from that of Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller's HEROIC or of sAw's old ENCE side, and was ruthlessly exploited by the calling and fragging of an in-form Alejandro "⁠alex⁠" Masanet.

ENCE join HEROIC in a trip to the airport after their own disappointing group stage campaign was ended by FURIA.

Having entered the event as the second-highest-ranked team in Group C and making positive noises around Paweł "⁠dycha⁠" Dycha's role change, results did not materialize for the Polish-majority side.

dycha initiates role shift: "It's disgusting when we lose matches because of me"

dycha ended the event on a 0.99 rating — his seventh in a row below 1.00 — as ENCE suffered successive defeats at the hands of GamerLegion before crumbling in second halves against FURIA.

Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander's men had an 8-1 lead on the T side of Nuke, and 8-4 after their CT side of Mirage, but crumbled under the weight of the pressure and good performances from Yuri "⁠yuurih⁠" Santos and Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 19
30/04/2024	ENCE Finished 0:2 GamerLegion	Match
01/05/2024	Bad News Kangaroos Finished 1:2 ENCE	Match
02/05/2024	ENCE Finished 2:0 Monte	Match
03/05/2024	ENCE Finished 0:2 GamerLegion	Match
04/05/2024	FURIA Finished 2:0 ENCE	Match