Vitality make EPL playoffs; ENCE relegated to Last Chance Stage

Vitality dominated FURIA to progress through the group stage.

Vitality became the next team to secure their ESL Pro League S20 playoff spot after a dominant 2-0 win over FURIA, while ENCE have been sent down to the Last Chance Stage after a loss to RED Canids.

Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire and company are now guaranteed to skip at least the first round of the playoffs. Their next test will come against Liquid, with the winner of that match set to earn a direct quarter-final berth.

Meanwhile, FURIA drop down to the lower bracket, where they will face off against RED Canids for a spot in the LB final.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 20
13/09/2024	FURIA 13:30 RED Canids	Match
15/09/2024	Liquid 19:30 Vitality	Match

While RED Canids remain in the lower bracket following their win, a struggling ENCE drops to the Last Chance Stage. The Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander-led team now sports a dismal 36.8% win rate in the last three months, with their resume featuring losses against the likes of kONO, Young Ninjas, and UNiTY, and will now face ATOX in the last-place decider game.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 20
13/09/2024	ATOX 19:30 ENCE	Match

Vitality vs. FURIA began on Vertigo, where the latter raced to a 7-2 lead after red-hot starts by Yuri "⁠yuurih⁠" Santos and Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato. That was as good as it got for the Brazilians, however, as they went on to lose the remaining three T-sided rounds before disappearing in the second half, which allowed Vitality to win 11 straight rounds and take a 13-7 win.

The apEX-led team then took that momentum into the second map of Dust2 and put up an imperious 9-3 offensive half, helped massively by Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut finding three consecutive wallbang kills through the Mid doors. The second half was equally dominant, which meant Vitality breezed past the Brazilians and secured a playoff spot in Malta.

The Group D lower bracket match between ENCE and RED Canids started on Ancient, where ENCE were utterly anonymous and only picked up three rounds with no individual posting a 1+ rating.

The second map of Vertigo followed the same storyline but went the way of ENCE, who equalized the score after a dominant 13-6 win.

That meant an Anubis decider was needed, and Henrique "⁠HEN1⁠" Teles began the map by putting up 20 kills in the first half, which was enough for his team to get a 7-5 lead on the CT side. The Brazilian AWPer cooled off on the offense and only got three more frags, but his teammates picked up the slack to stay alive in the Group D lower bracket after a 13-8 win.