Heroic have beaten Virtus.pro in the quarterfinals of the PGL Major Stockholm 2021, knocking them out of the tournament. The Danes, in turn, are heading to the semifinals on Nov. 6 at 11:30 a.m. E.T. They will play the winner of the match between G2 Esports and Ninjas in Pyjamas.
The match was played relatively close between the Danes and the CIS squad. Heroic won on VP’s map pick of Mirage (16-10) and lost on their own pick of Ancient (16-13). Everything came down to Inferno, which has traditionally been the pivotal decider match. This was one instance where the map didn’t fully deliver, ending 16-12 for Heroic. A late rally from VP wasn’t enough to bring the match back in their favor. Heroic had standout performances from most of their players, but the series MVP would have to go to René “TeSeS” Madsen, who had 58 kills on a 1.15 HLTV 2.0 rating.
Some other notable match highlights include Ismail “refrezh” Ali’s Deagle 1v3 and the Danish corner of the audience providing most of the noise in the Avicii Arena.
Heroic almost didn’t even progress to the Legends stage. They took a win against the Movistar Riders to propel them out of the Challengers stage with a 3-2 match record. Besides an early loss to tournament favorites Natus Vincere, the Legends stage was much cleaner for Heroic. They beat Team Vitality, Astralis and then the Copenhagen Flames, who they’d previously lost to at the event. With their three wins secured, Heroic booked their ticket to the Avicii Arena and the quarterfinals.
For Virtus.pro, it’s the end of the line. The CIS team put up a commendable run at the PGL Major. Like Heroic, they fought their way through the Challengers stage. Swapping in Evgeniy “FL1T” Lebedev for Sanjar “SANJI” Kuliev prior to the start of the event didn’t impede their momentum coming into the major. They battled their way to quarters, exceeding expectations in their performance, but they couldn’t bring down Heroic.
Published: Nov 4, 2021 03:38 pm