Falcons suffer early EPL elimination at the hands of RED Canids

Meanwhile back-to-back EPL champions MOUZ bested fnatic to get to within a single victory of a playoff berth.

Falcons suffered a damning elimination at the hands of RED Canids on the B stream to end their ESL Pro League campaign. Both maps were hard-fought affairs, but the Brazilians came out on top on Mirage (13-10) and Dust2 (13-10).

With their victory RED Canids have earned a matchup against the winner of FURIA vs. ATOX, with a playoff berth on the line.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 20
15/09/2024	RED Canids 16:30 FURIA	Match

In recent weeks Falcons had seen a modest improvement in their form, bagging a BLAST Fall Final spot via the Showdown and taking notable wins over the likes of Virtus.pro.

The European combine were brought crashing back down to reality in Malta, close losses to FURIA, Virtus.pro and RED Canids sealing an early EPL exit and sending the team to "full rock bottom" according to Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer.

Clips: coldzera 1v3 turns the tides on Dust2

Falcons were the victim of sloppy mid-round play throughout this series against RED Canids, at one point on Mirage losing a 5v3 advantage to armor-less opponents due to repeated lazy mid-round wide swings.

RED Canids took full advantage of Falcons' missteps, with David "⁠dav1deuS⁠" Tapia Maldonado finding gaps throughout the series and Carlos "⁠venomzera⁠" Eduardo getting some potent entry work done on Dust2. Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David even managed to roll back the years and find a vital clutch towards the end of the series to help his team over the line.

Meanwhile on the A stream, MOUZ eliminated fnatic from ESL Pro League S20 in a dominant two-map series (Vertigo 13-3, Mirage 13-5) to stay alive in the Group C Last Chance Stage.

The Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek-led team seemed back to their best after a rough start to their title defense, with Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin's return to form being a big part of that. The Swede averaged a 0.83 rating in Malta coming into the series but had a fantastic game against Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer and company, putting up a 1.80 rating in the match.

MOUZ now need one more victory to progress through the group stage, where they will face the winner of Complexity vs. Astralis for a playoff spot.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 20
15/09/2024	MOUZ 13:30 Complexity	Match

For fnatic, this is a disappointing end to their EPL campaign. They began the tournament with an encouraging win over Astralis but then lost to M80, BIG, and MOUZ without winning a map to suffer an early elimination.

The MOUZ vs. fnatic game began on Vertigo, where MOUZ seemed to be back to their best. They got off to a quick 5-1 start and comfortably won the first half as fnatic couldn't string consecutive rounds together, before Dorian "⁠xertioN⁠" Berman's entries gave them the required four T rounds for a 13-3 victory.

Clip: xertioN finds four kills during A split

The start of Mirage was a close affair due to fnatic winning the pistol and two eco rounds, but Alexandre "⁠bodyy⁠" Pianaro and company still went into the second half two rounds behind. Once the sides switched, so did the momentum, and MOUZ won six straight rounds to sail into the Last Chance Stage final without breaking a sweat.