MIBR silences Team Heretics in statement 2-0 victory

Day two of the Champions Paris playoffs began with a long-awaited showdown between Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #2 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius and MIBR MIBR Brazil Rank #1 artzin Arthur Araujo xenom Eduardo Soeiro cortezia Gabriel Cortez Verno Andrew Maust aspas Erick Santos .

Despite contentious words being exchanged between the two teams since the beginning of the year, this was their first time ever playing each other, finally colliding on the Champions stage after both teams flamed out at Masters Toronto. In a statement win, MIBR defeated Heretics in a convincing 2-0, settling the score between them to move forward in the upper bracket.

The series began on MIBR's pick of Corrode, where they had trounced both Bilibili Gaming Bilibili Gaming China Rank #1 whzy Wang Haozhe (王昊哲) Levius Lu Yinzhong (卢胤中) rushia Wang Xiaojie (王晓杰) nephh Marcus Tan Knight Liu Yuxiang (刘宇翔) and Rex Regum Qeon Rex Regum Qeon Asia-Pacific Rank #4 Monyet Cahya Nugraha xffero David Monangin Jemkin Maksim Batorov Kushy Bryan Carlos Setiawan crazyguy Ngô Công Anh in the group stage. Reading into Heretics' tendencies on defense, they masterfully took advantage of the open space left by their opponents in Mid and A, which along with some crucial duels enabled them to take an early 5-1 lead. Heretics attempted to adapt, investing both of their timeouts, but MIBR stayed in control for the rest of the half to go up 8-4.

Undeterred, Heretics quickly pulled the score back to 9-9, converting the bonus with a Stinger buy and consistently winning out postplants on narrow margins. MIBR at one point seemed to recover, reaching 12-10 after locking down the A site, but MiniBoo found key kills in two chaotic rounds to keep Heretics alive and force overtime.

Overtime was all MIBR as the Brazilian squad won clean rounds on both sides to win Corrode 14-12. artzin had a tremendous impact on KAY/O with strong utility and fragging, ending the map with a 24/12/15 KDA, 185 ADR, and a 1.61 rating.

The next map was Sunset, where Heretics opted to put Wo0t on Viper instead of the Raze they had shown against T1 T1 Korea Rank #3 stax Kim Gu-taek (김구택) Meteor Kim Tae-oh (김태오) BuZz Yu Byeong-cheol (유병철) DH Kang Dong-ho (강동호) iZu Ham Woo-ju (함우주) . Against a slower composition, MIBR shut Heretics down comfortably, constantly locking them out of the sites to once again lead 5-1.

Heretics again invested both timeouts in an attempt to rally back, but aspas ' signature Operator found them everywhere they went. The Duelist racked up 10 Operator kills on MIBR's defense, six of which came from three separate collaterals. Heretics were constantly forced to play at a man disadvantage, collecting ten first deaths between them in a single half that ended 9-3 in favor of MIBR.

This time, there was no hope of any comeback. Heretics delayed the inevitable with a pistol, but MIBR closed out the map with relative ease for a 13-6 win. aspas ended the map with 19 kills to 10 deaths, 185 ADR, and four first kills, cortezia trailing close behind with 18 kills to 8 deaths and 163 ADR.

“We just learned how to play each map in our style,” Verno said when asked about his and MIBR's recent success in the post-match interview. “We're all comfortable with how we play together, so it just makes the game really simple.”

The underdog story continues for MIBR as they carry the torch for Brazil deeper into the tournament, where they will next play the winner of NRG versus GIANTX. Cast down to the lower bracket, Heretics will have to fight for survival versus the loser tomorrow.