North and Heroic are the two last European teams to qualify for ESL Pro League season nine finals.
They played against BIG and Natus Vincere for the last two slots in the finals, which will be played in June. The group featured a round-robin format and every match was a best-of-three series.
North upset Na`Vi in the first round with a 2-1 win. They put in a collective effort to defeat Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev’s side in a tight series that could’ve gone either way. All maps were close: 16-14 to North on Overpass, 16-13 to Na`Vi on Mirage and 16-13 to North in Dust 2.
North had an easier series in the second round against their compatriots from Heroic. They had another great team performance as four of their players recorded between 37 and 43 kills. North defeated Heroic by 2-0 and were the first team from Group B to qualify for the finals.
Heroic won the first round match against BIG. They beat the Germans by 2-0, but that didn’t mean it was easy. The Danes scraped out victories of 16-14 and 16-13. Their new player, Niels-Christian “NaToSaphiX” Sillassen, got 46 kills, the highest amount on Heroic’s side.
The final spot was open to Na`Vi and Heroic in the last round of Group B. The series went all the way and Heroic came back from a four-rounds deficit to win the last map by 16-14. Benjamin “blameF” Bremer, Heroic’s captain played a huge role in round 28, by gaining a one-versus-two clutch.
North and Heroic will join Astralis, FaZe, mousesports, G2, fnatic and Hellraisers, who qualified earlier.
The finals of ESL Pro League season nine will be played from June 18 to June 23. Sixteen teams will battle for a share of the $750,000 prizepool.
