Lake shines as M80 head to EPL quarters over Imperial

The North American side went through the group stage without dropping a single map.

M80 have bagged a direct spot in the quarter-finals of ESL Pro League Season 20, moving past Vinicius "⁠VINI⁠" Figueiredo's Imperial lineup in 2-0 fashion to reach the top eight of the Maltese event.

Elsewhere during the penultimate day of the group stage, FURIA kept their run alive in Group D's Last Chance Stage, besting ATOX 2-0 to secure a regional rematch versus RED Canids.

Alongside the Brazilian brawl in Group D, tomorrow's matches will also feature MOUZ and Complexity duking it out for one of the last places in playoffs, while Liquid and Vitality vie for a spot in the quarter-finals.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 20
15/09/2024	MOUZ 13:30 Complexity	Match
15/09/2024	RED Canids 16:30 FURIA	Match
15/09/2024	Liquid 19:30 Vitality	Match

For M80, this victory over Imperial caps off an impressive run through Group C, which kicked off with a confident win against North American rivals Complexity. This win was followed up by a harrowing series versus fnatic, where the German-American side won out 37-34 in the opening map of the series, the lengthiest to be played in CS2 so far.

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M80 vs. fnatic breaks CS2 round record

Securing a quarter-final showing at EPL marks one of the best results for M80 since the team's inception, made especially notable by the recent loss of star rifler Mario "⁠malbsMd⁠" Samayoa, leading to the team bringing up domestic talent Mason "⁠Lake⁠" Sanderson in his steed.

"Us losing malbsMd was kind of a big hit, but [Lake] was the best NA player we could have found by far," shared Michael "⁠Swisher⁠" Schmid after the win over Imperial. "He struggled early on, there was a lot to learn."

Despite those early struggles, Lake has been a key part of M80's success in EPL, and this was no different in the team's win against Imperial. The young rifler was a force to be reckoned with on the offense on his team's pick of Vertigo, snagging an ace and scoring a 1.77 rating to help his team to an 8-4 half.

Clip: Lake bags an ace to extend lead over Imperial

A pistol round win in the second half got Elias "⁠s1n⁠" Stein's men to match point right away, but Imperial managed to contest for a few rounds longer before M80 locked down their pick 13-7, moving the series to Dust2.

Pistol rounds would prove to be the bane of M80's existence on their opponent's map pick. After the Brazilians secured the first on the offense, M80 worked to keep things close on the defense, wrapping up the half 6-6.

Clip: Lake 1v3 kicks off M80's comeback

Imperial hit the ground running on their CT-side with another pistol win to break away from the Americans, but a 1v3 clutch from Lake obliterated their momentum, allowing M80 to claw back into the match, eventually stealing away the map 13-11.