Heroic advanced to IEM Cologne’s main stage following a 2-1 victory against MOUZ in the second round of the play-in’s upper bracket today.
The Danes made their way to the winners’ match after they thrashed Sprout 16-3 in the opening round. It looked like Heroic were on their way to another easy victory as they beat MOUZ 16-5 on Ancient after a dominant 14-1 lead in the first half. MOUZ did not give up after the harsh defeat and tied the series after a hard-fought 16-11 victory on Inferno.
The series moved to Nuke and Heroic dispatched MOUZ 16-7 to become the first squad in the play-in stage to advance to the main stage of IEM Cologne. These were their first two official matches with Jakob “jabbi” Nygaard, who replaced Ismail “refrezh” Ali in June. The former Copenhagen Flames youngster debuted in style, having posted great fragging numbers against Sprout and MOUZ.
The MVP of Heroic vs. MOUZ wasn’t jabbi, though. Martin “stavn” Lund shined the most and finished the series with an outstanding +25 K/D difference, 97.8 ADR, and 1.52 rating. The 20-year-old has been Heroic’s best player for months and with the help of jabbi, could take the team to the next level and win tournaments.
MOUZ will have another shot to qualify for the main stage of IEM Cologne tomorrow against the winner of MIBR vs. TYLOO at 12:30pm CT. They’re theoretically the favorite to advance, independently of the adversary.
