Two Look to Progress to Legends Tomorrow
The first day of the PGL Antwerp Major saw teams from the EU RMRs win all of their Round 1 matches in convincing fashion. Bad News Eagles took down Eternal Fire 16-14 in the only EU vs EU opening matchup; but the Turkish superteam quickly bounced back with a 16-2 victory against Renegades in the 0-1 pool. With the first day of action concluded, four EU teams look to battle it out in the 2-0 pool to progress to the Legends stage tomorrow. Here’s a look at the upcoming Round 3 High Matches:
ENCE vs. G2: the battle of the best
ENCE are looking in-form heading into the match tomorrow. Despite a close first half, the third best team in the world swiftly sent 9z into the 0-1 pool with a 16-7 victory on Mirage. Lotan ‘Spinx’ Giladi’s massive 2.01 rating shut down the South Americans as he seemingly carried his stellar form from the EU RMR and BLAST Spring Showdown.
ENCE’s round 2 match was equally dominant, shutting down Outsiders 16-6 on Vertigo. The team’s Polish duo sent the CIS squad down to the 1-1 pool with a 1.52 and a 1.42 rating from PaweÅ ‘dycha’ Dycha and Olek ‘hades’ Miskiewicz respectively.
G2 started the day with an unbeatable CT-side on Inferno against Team Liquid, winning the match 16-6. Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov and the KovaÄ cousins shut down the American team with 62 combined kills in just 22 rounds. The superteam looked similarly strong on Dust 2 against Team Spirit, netting 11 rounds on the CT-side and later establishing a 15-8 lead. A strong resurgence from the Russian opposition forced G2 to clinch the victory in overtime after a weak T-half.
Both teams are looking to break the other team’s 5 match win streak. G2 are tasked with shutting down Spinx’s aggressive rifling, while ENCE look to stifle their opponents’ strong CT capabilities. The match is scheduled for 18:15 CEST tomorrow.
Vitality vs. forZe: apEX’s veterans versus Jerry’s new blood
Vitality have found their footing after a rough RMR and now look to go flawless in the Challengers stage. The French-Danish squad coasted their way to the 2-0 pool after two suffocating performances. In the first match, Emil ‘Magisk’ Reif topped the server but Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut stole the show as the star AWPer went deathless against Complexity in a 16-1 beatdown.
The 1-0 match saw the Vitality Danes face off against their old teammates of Astralis in a brawl on Mirage. Despite Benjamin ‘blameF’ Bremer’s best efforts, Vitality claimed the win with a 16-8 domination.
forZe had a comparatively easy path to the Major and had been dealt a similar hand in this tournament. The Russian team did not let their opportunity go to waste, beating Renegades 16-9 on Nuke following an oppressive CT-side.
They continued their momentum in the 1-0 match, efficiently defeating the Bad News Eagles on Inferno 16-7. Aleksandr ‘KENSI’ Gurkin led the charge, boasting a 1.50 rating across their two matches. He looks to replicate his strong form heading into tomorrow.
Vitality will look to silence forZe’s underdog run with another ZywOo star performance. It will fall on IGL Andrey ‘Jerry’ Mekhryakovand his men to take advantage of their superior map pool statistics and make a statement against a top-11 team ‘ their highest-rated opponent since entering the Major.
The match is scheduled for 14:30 CEST tomorrow, tune in to catch all the action live on PGL’s Twitch.
Feature Image: PGL esports
