BC.Game have been crowned the champions of Elisa Esports Breakout Series 1 after beating ENCE 2-0 (13-11 Mirage, 16-13 Nuke) in the $17,163 Finnish tournament’s grand final.
The tournament marked the debut of BC.Game’s new roster with Emil “Magisk” Reif as in-game leader and the reunited Mongolian duo of Ayush “mzinho” Batbold and Azbayar “Senzu” Munkhbold, moves that resulted in the team starting from scratch on the VRS.
A flawless run through the round-robin group stage put them back on the board at rank #150, and a 1.84 and 1.76-rated series from Senzu and Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev ensured BC.Game marched past SINQU in the semis to set up a title decider against ENCE, who had also gone flawless in Group A and beat HAVU in the semis.
The newly rebuilt Finnish squad were no pushovers in the final, either, leading early on Mirage as only Senzu and mzinho found impact amidst a flat offensive start. ENCE then converted the pistol after the swap and were moments away from stealing BC.Game’s pick, leading 11-6, but the Mongolian duo powered a lockout defense from then on to clinch victory.
The script flipped on Nuke, where BC.Game made up for losing an early string of rounds to lead 7-5 at the break, and extended that with a pistol and conversion win. ENCE’s young, inexperienced roster didn’t crumble, though, scraping wins in several late-round disadvantaged scenarios, and showing tenacity by bringing the map to overtime after trailing 9-12.
But their fortunes turned in the extra rounds as BC.Game won two crucial clutches, starting with a masterful AK-47 4k and 1v3 by s1mple and followed two rounds later by a 1v2 from Denis “electroNic” Sharipov, and that was enough for BC.Game to close out and clinch the title.
Senzu ended the event as the highest-rated player, averaging a 1.48 rating over seven maps, and BC.Game’s final win pushed them further up the VRS to enter the top 100 at #84.
The team will now turn its attention to the Esports World Cup Open Qualifier, which will run from August 7-9 in Paris, France with up to 128 teams and offer four spots at the $2,000,000 main event. 64 teams are currently signed up on the tournament page, including the likes of Liquid, BIG, HEROIC, and 100 Thieves.
