Heretics one match off Bangkok qualification

EMEA's Kickoff sprung back into action today with an unexpected but welcome BBL Esports BBL Esports Europe Rank #17 Jamppi Elias Olkkonen sociablEE Volkan Yonal PROFEK Dawid Święć vakk Vakaris Bebravičius stand-in LewN Burak Alkan versus Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #1 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius matchup. Fans hoping for another upset by the Turkish organization were let down as Heretics went to work and continued to the upper final with a quick 2-0.

BBL's pick of Pearl looked to gain them an early lead in the series. The last time the underdogs played the map they stomped GIANTX GIANTX Europe Rank #14 purp0 Semyon Borchev Cloud Kirill Nehozhin runneR Emil Trajkovski westside Miłosz Duda tomaszy Tomás Machado 13-5, with sociablEE and PROFEK putting up marvelous ratings. However, as they entered the server against Heretics, the entire BBL roster seemed fired up and ready.

After a slow default on defense saw Heretics steal away the pistol round, BBL began speeding up their hits, often catching single players by surprise and securing sites within seconds. Despite the powerful utility from Heretics on their retakes, rounds were often stolen away by single players on BBL fragging out in high-pressure moments.

Both of neilzinho 's timeouts were burned by Round 9 as BBL were simply outclassing Heretics on their attacking half. Holds were run through and disregarded, postplants the same. Only in the last three rounds of the half did Heretics stall out BBL to the point of forcing them into uncomfortable postplants, ending the half 5-7 to stop the bleeding.

Almost as if a switch inside them had been flipped, Heretics quickly got to work in the second half of Pearl. An early pistol loss was quickly disregarded as overwhelming reads and utility began closing the gap against BBL.

Fast site hits and pivots were also utilized by Heretics as round after round was won due to excellent postplant utility and calling from Boo . Even when BBL seemingly began to close out the series with great openers from LewN and Jamppi , Heretics held strong shut down retakes with single players, closing out Pearl with a 13-11 scoreline.

Wo0t and Boo played pivotal roles for their team throughout Pearl, ending with a 1.45 and 1.31 rating. Both had over 10 assists, Wo0t going above and beyond with five opening picks.

With their opponent's map pick out of the way, Heretics made quick work of BBL on Lotus. The team seemed to return to form as more fast hits and reads propelled them to a five rounds off the bat before their opponents felt comfortable enough to contest.

Although BBL seemed poised to keep up with Heretics after another PROFEK 4k helped them gain some momentum, no real solution presented itself for the Turkish representatives on Lotus. Any lead was snatched away, and the only four rounds they could muster on defense came off the back of coinflip fights, mistakes, or hero rounds.

RieNs in particular was the one to bring Heretics to a commendable 8-4 half off the back of multi-kills, trades, and utility. The talent boasted a 54% headshot percentage all throughout Lotus, outperforming everyone in the server on Fade.

Despite losing the second pistol once again, Heretics once again seemed to quickly adapt to BBL's strategy and set themselves up off of Boo's reads. Stack after stack was walked into, and BBL's attack was shut down or stalled out to where only one more round was put up before succumbing to Los Niños.

Now on the verge of elimination, BBL will need to win three more matches in a row to qualify for Masters Bangkok. They will play the winner of GIANTX and Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #21 paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski kamyk Maks Rychlewski nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak in two days.

Heretics, on the other hand, only need to win one more match against the winner of FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #8 xeus Doğan Gözgen MrFaliN Furkan Yeğen yetujey Eray Budak AtaKaptan Ata Tan qRaxs Doğukan Balaban and Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #6 trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Derke Nikita Sirmitev Kicks Kimmie Laasner Sayf Saif Jibraeel Less Felipe de Loyola Basso . A loss will put them in the lower final, down but not out of Kickoff.