Flames, Heroic, FURIA Qualify For PGL Major Antwerp’s Champion Stage
The Copenhagen Flames, Heroic, and FURIA Esport have secured the last spots in the Champion Stage that will start on Thursday. They qualified for the stage after winning their last Legends Stage games of the PGL Major Antwerp on Tuesday.
Heroic and FURIA both won with three maps. Heroic beat Team Vitality, while FURIA defeated G2 Esport. Both teams recorded a 2-1 win each. Meanwhile, The Copenhagen Flames defeated Imperial Esport 2-0.
This Legends Stage was held in the Swiss System format to determine the eight teams that would compete in the Champion Stage. The elimination and follow-up matches, however, used the best-of-three format, with all matches being best-of-one.
Heroic’s victory over Vitality
Team Heroic defeated Vitality 16-7 in the first match on Mirage. Vitality then retaliated in the second match to secure a win of 16-14. Heroic won 16-12 in the last game on Inferno.
Heroic’s Martin ‘stavn’ Lund scored 83 kills with a plus-29 kill-to-death ratio. Meanwhile, Danish player Emil ‘Magisk’ Reif scored a record of 54 kills and a plus-4 K/D differential for Vitality.
Heroic has often been a subject of criticism, but ace Casper ‘cadiaN’ Moller just would not care. He continued to push the team to advance in the match, carrying it beyond the semifinals, unlike last year.
Consistency and the ability to seize opportunities are the two things that this team excels at. Heroic could take advantage of the opponent’s inconsistent plays and little mistakes to improve its performance throughout the match. This enables Heroic to obtain the best possible results in matches.
FURIA’s win over the G2
FURIA won the first match 16-12 against G2 on Vertigo. G2 came back to catch up and take the lead by 16-14 on Inferno. On the last map, FURIA scored a win of 10-0 and came out victorious over G2.
FURIA’s Kaike ‘KSSCERATO’ Cerato scored 63 kills, while Yuri ‘yuurih’ Santos scored 60 kills with a K/D differential of plus-10. Meanwhile, Nemanja ‘huNter-‘ Kovac scored 63 kills for the G2 team.
FURIA is the only team left from America that is still playing. As opposed to its Stockholm bid last year, FURIA displayed a consistent performance this year. The last time they competed, FURIA did not have the right AWPer as Andre ‘drop’ Abreu was still in the adaptation period.
This time, FURIA brought along AWPer Rafael ‘saffee’ Costa. Both saffee and drop had maximum support, allowing them to show consistent performance in the matches.
Flames’ victory over Imperial
With a score of 16-2 on Inferno and 22-18 on Vertigo, the Flames kicked Imperial out of the competition. Rasmus ‘Zyphon’ Nordfoss scored a plus-30 K/D ratio with 54 kills for the Flames. Meanwhile, Vinicius ‘VINI’ Figueiredo scored 41 kills for Imperial.
the Flames were surely aware that Imperial’s players were of high caliber. However, since winning this match was the only way for the Flames to advance to the next round and secure their position, they were encouraged to show their full potential and compete with all their might.