Nemiga eliminate HEROIC from ESL Pro League

The European squad only got one win in the tournament's opening stage.

"There's only room for one Belarusian player at ESL Pro League, and that's me," Aliaksandr "⁠1eeR⁠" Nahorny joked after Nemiga knocked out HEROIC From EPL 21 Stage 1 in the 1-2 pool.

"Andrey [tN1R] is a good person, a good player," he continued, "I played maybe half a year with him, and I knew it would be an interesting game [today]."

It took Nemiga three maps to get the win, with the opener, their Dust2 pick, going to overtime (16-14), followed by HEROIC's retaliation on Mirage (6-13), and a Train decider that went the distance (13-11).

Dust2, often a haven for AWPers, was Beksultan "⁠khaN⁠" Ospan's playground, as he got 29 frags and 90 ADR in the 30 rounds and topped the scoreboard with a 1.51 rating, while his counterpart, Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García, struggled to find his groove early on.

HEROIC struck back bluntly on Mirage as Andrey "⁠tN1R⁠" Tatarinovich, who struggled mightily in the opener with a lowly 0.78 rating, came alive with 21 kills in 19 rounds and 107 ADR to end with a 1.74 rating. SunPayus also kicked into gear with 20 kills to help his team tie the series up, 1-1.

The Train decider went the distance, but ended up with Nemiga making good on their 7 T-side rounds to close it out in regulation, 13-11, after stopping a quick A hit in the final round of regulation.

HEROIC played the map three times and lost it in all three of their series losses in Sweden, making it a liability and a big part of their 1-3 elimination at the hands of SAW, 3DMAX, and Nemiga.

1eeR and his men will be back in action on the final day of Stage 1 after successfully avoiding elimination twice in a row. Opening defeats to MIBR and NRG were followed by victories over Mindfreak and HEROIC, which puts them among the final six teams in the decider matches.