Heroic will take over the main stage on Saturday in the Semi-final of the PGL Stockholm Major as they beat Virtus.pro in a best of three Quarter-Final.
Match Details :
- Heroic Vs Virtus.pro.
- Time : 21:00 PM IST.
- Venue : Avicii Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.
- Match format : Best Of Three.
- Match type : Played on LAN .
- Tournament : PGL Stockholm (Valve Major Championship Tier).
Veto:
- Virtus.pro removed Nuke.
- Heroic removed Dust2.
- Virtus.pro picked Mirage.
- Heroic picked Ancient.
- Heroic removed Vertigo.
- Virtus.pro removed Overpass.
- Inferno was left over.
Map 1: Mirage (Picked by – Virtus.pro, Winner – Heroic, Final Score – 16:10)
Starting on Virtus. pro’s pick of Mirage, Heroic started on the defensive side. After losing the pistol and a second-round Dzhami ‘Jame’ Ali and his men took the game by the scruff of the neck, trading rounds back and forth as Heroic struggled to find any traction on the offense. Despite Mareks ‘YEKINDAR’ Gaļinskis’ efforts to cut off the CT’s rotations towards the plant, VP didn’t build up the economy you might expect, as the Danish side managed to break them towards the end of the half to recover to a 7-8 score.
With little room for error, Heroic picked up the pace and took the first three rounds as Terrorist to get within touching distance of Virtus.pro. The CIS team did try to retaliate but it all came down to René ‘TeSeS’ Madsen and Ismail ‘refrezh’ Ali who won it for Heroic and r put his team back in their team into the driver’s seat, eventually running away with their opponent’s map pick, 16-10.
Map 2: Ancient (Picked by – Heroic, Winners: Virtus. pro, Final Score – 16:13).
Ancient was a close affair as at the beginning none of either side really took off, showing dominance. Although a combined effort from Evgeny ‘FL1T’ Lebedev, Timur ‘buster’ Tulepov, and YEKINDAR saw Virtus. pro exploit their reinforcements set to deny Heroic and win three rounds in succession over the Danes going up eight rounds against a previous deficit of 5-6.
The first half eventually went in favour of the CIS heavyweights, 8-7.
Jame and co piled up more misery on Heroic by winning the pistol round on the Terrorist side and the corresponding anti-ecos, bringing the scoreline to 11-7. Heroic then found a lifeline as they put together a small run of rounds, forcing VP to re-evaluate their strategies going forward. The momentum had indeed shifted in favor of Casper ‘cadiaN’ Møllerand and his troops as Heroic once took a lead over the Berlin Major runner-ups, but the latter had their final laugh as buster and Alexey ‘Qikert’ Golubev drafted a perfect game-plan to overwhelm Heroic as both the teams traded off their map picks.
Map 3: Inferno (Ancient was leftover in the veto and was won by Heroic, Final Score – 16:12).
Virtus.pro came out of the gate looking scary, with Jame racking up two kills to open the A site up for business only to be denied by TeSeS who snatched the pistol victory for Heroic. Nothing seemed to work for VP until the ninth round hit where they managed to secure more four rounds to their name, ending the first half with just six rounds on the board to those of nine in favour of Heroic.
The second half of Inferno witnessed an unparalleled dominance from Heroic as they ran away with a mammoth lead of 14-7, not letting their opponents win a single round in that half.
Jame and his men looked completely destitute and listless prior to the former’s 2K with his sniper to lock Heroic from the A-site as Virtus.pro started to reset their mental state amid the impending regulation. They rallied over to a scoreline of 15-12 but an A execution saw the CIS side fall apart as cadiaN pulled off the final honours to send his team to the Semi-final of the PGL Stockholm CS:GO Major.
Heroic will now play the winner of G2 Esports Vs Ninjas In Pyjamas on Saturday, to start from 21:00 PM onwards.