HEROIC won Stake Pulse Beat II in Stockholm on Saturday after a 2-1 victory against 100 Thieves in a series where they had to fight off two championship points on Ancient after losing the opening map of Dust2.
Christoffer “Chr1zN” Storgaard’s charges then completed the turnaround with a 13-4 hammering on Inferno, a one-sided map where Tim “susp” Ångström nearly went deathless in the first half.
It’s the second LAN trophy for HEROIC since the summer arrivals of Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin and Antonio “MartinezSa” Martinez. The international team, which won Stake Ranked Episode 3 in Barcelona back in July, is now ranked 17th in the world (13th in Europe) after a ten-place jump with this title-winning campaign.
The defeat will hurt for 100 Thieves, but they have plenty of positives to take from their Stockholm run. They amassed 127 Valve points and moved up 14 places to 27th in the global VRS, keeping their Major hopes alive. They have three LAN events coming up before the invite cut-off: ROG Journey Autumn, Stake Pulse Beat III, and FiRe Last Chance.
100 Thieves are now ranked 27th in the world
HEROIC’s players looked sharp on the CT side, winning all but two opening duels in a tightly contested first half, but they couldn’t convert that dominance into a lasting lead, as 100 Thieves still managed seven rounds on the T side.
HEROIC regained the lead after a bright start to their T side, but the rest of the half was controlled by 100 Thieves, who went on a 6-0 run with Håvard “rain” Nygaard leading the charge (2.24 rating and +14.23% round swing).
100 Thieves recovered from a 5-7 deficit on Ancient and reached championship point after a dominant 6-0 run on the T side. However, they were unable to deal the finishing blow as HEROIC equalised the score and then closed out the map in double overtime.
HEROIC grabbed Inferno by the scruff of the neck and cruised to an 11-0 lead before 100 Thieves picked up a consolation round. Chr1zN’s charges failed the conversion after a dominant pistol round, but it didn’t take them long to finish the game off, putting the series to rest with a 2v3 clutch by Linus “nilo” Bergman and MartinezSa.
