HEROIC, OG secure Austin Major Stage 1 berths

The teams went undefeated in the Europe MRQ to secure spots at the Major.

HEROIC and OG have earned tickets to Stage 1 of the BLAST.tv Austin Major after completing 3-0 runs through the Europe Regional Qualifier's Swiss bracket.

HEROIC battled past Nemiga to lock in their berth, a 1.49-rated performance from Andrey "⁠tN1R⁠" Tatarinovich leading the way in a 13-8 Dust2 victory before Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García stole the show on Mirage, a 28-19 K-D, 1.40 rating powering his team to a comeback from 7-11 down to win the map in overtime.

With the qualification, the Norwegian organization extends its streak of Major appearances to seven in a row, having made every one since returning to LAN after the coronavirus pandemic.

Out of HEROIC's last three appearances, one was with its Danish lineup led by Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller and two with its international one, helmed by Damjan "⁠kyxsan⁠" Stoilkovski, making this roster the third entirely different core to bring the organization to a Major.

It will be tN1R and Simon "⁠yxngstxr⁠" Boije's first-ever Major, with the former set to become the first Belarusian player at a Major.

The qualification also offers some redemption to the former Sangal trio of yxngstxr, Linus "⁠LNZ⁠" Holtäng, and Yasin "⁠xfl0ud⁠" Koç after they couldn't deliver on a promising string of online results and missed the Shanghai Major with a 1-3 exit at the Europe RMR.

OG clinched the other early berth after battling past Metizport in a three-map series. Christoffer "⁠Chr1zN⁠" Storgaard led his team by example with a 1.72 rating to steal the Swedish team's Mirage pick, and though OG couldn't close in two, its Danish trio stepped up on Inferno to get things over the line.

OG returns to a Major for the first time since the Paris Major Challengers Stage when it still had Abdul "⁠degster⁠" Gasanov and Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan in its ranks.

It will be the third Major for the organization and the first for Christian "⁠Buzz⁠" Andersen, Chr1zN, and Olle "⁠spooke⁠" Grundström, with the qualification building upon a strong run of results since they brought in Nico "⁠nicoodoz⁠" Tamjidi.

Metizport and Nemiga drop down to the 2-1 pool and will face Astralis and BIG, respectively, in the fourth round of play., where a win will be crucial to avoid the chance of playing in the sixth-place decider match.

The next round of matchups are as follows:

1-2 pool

Date	Matches
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 Europe Regional Qualifier
16/04/2025	ENCE 10:00 fnatic	Match
16/04/2025	SAW 10:00 GamerLegion	Match
16/04/2025	BC.Game 10:00 B8	Match

2-1 pool

Date	Matches
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 Europe Regional Qualifier
16/04/2025	Nemiga 13:00 BIG	Match
16/04/2025	9 Pandas 13:00 BetBoom	Match
16/04/2025	Metizport 13:25 Astralis	Match