Heretics move on in Road to Rio lower bracket over North

Heretics edged out North in a close two-map series in the first round of ESL One: Road to Rio - Europe's lower bracket to send the Danes into the 7th-8th place decider.

Despite still playing with Jimmy "⁠Jumpy⁠" Berndtsson instead of Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye, who fell ill before the end of the group stage and has not come back into the roster yet, North certainly made Heretics sweat. Both maps were decided at the very end of regulation, with the Swedish coach managing to hold his own and even put up a couple of highlights on Inferno.

With the close victory, the Frenchmen ended their winless drought dating back to the fourth match of the group stage, in large part thanks to Bryan "⁠Maka⁠" Canda, who had already impressed many in the previous stage and kept up amazing form as he led his team to the lower bracket semi-finals with a 1.63 rating.

Maka was once again in impressive form against North

Inferno started out as you would expect when a team has their coach for a stand-in, as North could only win one round in the first eight after Nabil "⁠Nivera⁠" Benrlitom kicked things off with a quad-kill. After an awful individual start, Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen stepped things up late in the first half as he picked up a triple to begin the comeback attempt and went on to add another at the end, spearheading the Danes' recovery.

Ahead by just one round, after all, Heretics won their second consecutive pistol and sped away again, while Alexandre "⁠xms⁠" Forté' triple kill in a halfbuy later on proved crucial for the French side as they reached map point. To everyone's surprise, Jumpy saved North's chances with a triple in a 2v4 situation and a quad-kill from MSL allowed them to take the match to the end of regulation, but there Nivera closed things out with a hairy 1v1 clutch.

Moving on to their opponents' pick, Vertigo, Heretics seemed to struggle early but quickly picked themselves up on the CT side. Despite a 0-4 start, the French squad locked down the first half 10-5 on the back of a successful double-AWP setup from Maka and Nivera.

North didn't go out without a fight yet again, with six rounds going their way once the sides switched. However, after Nicklas "⁠gade⁠" Gade won the last with a 1v3 clutch, Heretics started finding gaps in the defense. A key triple at 12-12 from Lucas "⁠Lucky⁠" Chastang forced the Danes into a corner and they couldn't recover from the economic downfall, with Maka's squad winning the series at 16-13, 2-0.

ESL One: Road to Rio - EuropeBest of 3

North

Matchpage

0

2

12th May 2020

Heretics

14

Inferno

16

13

Vertigo

16

North	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Philip 'aizy' Aistrupaizy	46 - 43	+3	84.8	1.14
Nicklas 'gade' Gadegade	36 - 38	-2	66.4	0.96
Mathias 'MSL' LauridsenMSL	36 - 45	-9	66.3	0.90
René 'cajunb' Borgcajunb	34 - 44	-10	60.8	0.81
Jimmy 'Jumpy' BerndtssonJumpy	26 - 42	-16	52.7	0.67

Heretics	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Bryan 'Maka' CandaMaka	61 - 34	+27	102.6	1.63
Nabil 'Nivera' BenrlitomNivera	41 - 36	+5	67.2	1.13
Lucas 'Lucky' ChastangLucky	39 - 36	+3	79.5	1.12
Fabien 'kioShiMa' FieykioShiMa	36 - 34	+2	74.3	1.10
Alexandre 'xms' Fortéxms	35 - 38	-3	67.9	0.96

Heretics are set to face the loser of the G2-Astralis match in the lower bracket semi-finals, while North only have an extra 100 points and a $1,000 increase in prizemoney to play for in the 7th-8th place decider against GODSENT.