HEROIC beat Sangal to qualify for EPL playoffs

Sangal fall at the final hurdle after a spirited display in Malta.

HEROIC secured the final Group A ESL Pro League S20 playoff spot after beating Sangal in a two-map series (Mirage 13-11, Nuke 13-9).

The win comes amid a rough period for HEROIC, as their preparation for EPL included unsuccessful campaigns at BLAST Premier Showdown and BetBoom Dacha Belgrade in recent weeks, with coach Eetu "⁠sAw⁠" Saha admitting he expects more from the team.

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HEROIC's EPL campaign started far from convincingly, too, as Abdul "⁠degster⁠" Gasanov and company lost their opener against Ninjas in Pyjamas after having their first map win overturned due to René "⁠TeSeS⁠" Madsen's Snap Tap usage, for which the Dane took full responsibility for since.

They then beat Lynn Vision but were immediately cast to the Last Chance Stage by Sangal, but the Damjan "⁠kyxsan⁠" Stoilkovski-led squad got revenge against Ninjas in Pyjamas and Sangal to secure their playoff spot.

"It's a big relief for us, we have been so close so many times and failed, so it feels good to make it through," said kyxsan in a post-match interview. "It was a bit stressful, but we had a good mentality and got it done."

Meanwhile, Sangal can be proud of their showing in Malta. The team, which reached the top 30 in the world ranking for the first time in history in July, beat FaZe, HEROIC, and FlyQuest but ultimately fell just short of the playoffs.

The series began on Mirage, where HEROIC put up a wall on the CT side to take a 10-2 lead at the half. Guy "⁠NertZ⁠" Iluz was his team's best performer with 188 ADR, 17 kills, and a 2.64 rating in the first half, but the map wasn't over yet. Sangal won nine out of the next ten rounds on their defensive half to tie up the scores at 11, only for HEROIC to break through an A stack and close out the map 13-11.

Next up was Nuke, where HEROIC got off to a solid start with a fast-paced offense that netted the European combine five rounds at the switch. Once NertZ and company got on to the CT side, though, they flipped the script and dominated the rest of the map to secure a 13-9 victory and send Sangal home from Malta.