SAW defeat Case to earn ESL Pro League Season 17 Conference berth

The Portuguese outfit beat the Brazilians on stage in Madrid to lock in an appearance at the offline tournament.

SAW have qualified for ESL Pro League Season 17 Conference and won ESL Masters Spain Season 12 after moving past Case 2-1 in the Feria Valencia stadium.

The Portuguese roster redeemed themselves after falling short in the tournament's previous season, where they finished as runners-up to FTW to miss out on a place at ESL Pro League Season 16 Conference.

roman averaged a team-high 1.24 rating in the three-map final

SAW's run to their first-place showing began with a 2-0 campaign through the group stage, with Christopher "⁠MUTiRiS⁠" Fernandes and company taking home victories over Gravity 0 and Case to finish Group A as the top seed.

SAW's next hurdle came in the form of Movistar Riders in the semi-finals. Michel "⁠ewjerkz⁠" Pinto hit his stride right on cue and put up a 65-55 K-D and 1.29 rating to clinch his team a hard-fought 2-1 victory and earn them a spot in the grand final versus the Brazilians.

MUTiRiS's troops were made to work in their title-winning matchup despite Case being over 100 spots lower down in the ranking; they narrowly got the better of the Brazilians 2-1 after winning their map pick of Ancient 16-11, conceding a lopsided Overpass 7-16, and then edging their foes out with a 16-12 scoreline on Nuke.

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SAW recently cracked into the top 30 on the world ranking — their highest placing since June 2021. They also made an appearance at Elisa Masters Espoo in November but struggled to get much going, picking up just one win versus Complexity before exiting the competition in joint-last place.

The Portuguese squad are the 18th side to book their place at ESL Pro League Season 17 Conference, which is set to run just prior to the start of the main event in February 2023. The remaining spots will be filled by the victors of ESL's several other national and international leagues, with the LAN event offering six ESL Pro League Season 17 berths.

Falcons
Rare Atom
Imperial
9INE
Lynn Vision
Genk
Grayhound
Endpoint
Eternal Fire

paiN
Movistar Riders
Outsiders
ATK
HEET
Partizan
Rooster
Babos
SAW

ESL Masters Spain Season 12 FinalsBest of 3

Case

Matchpage

1

2

10th December 2022

SAW

11

Ancient

16

16

Overpass

7

12

Nuke

16

Case	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Yan 'yepz' Pedrettiyepz	67 - 54	+13	86.2	1.24
Leonardo 'leo_drk' Oliveiraleo_drk	52 - 53	-1	83.4	1.17
Lucas 'honda' Canohonda	51 - 54	-3	74.9	0.98
Rodrigo 'RCF' FigueiredoRCF	48 - 53	-5	61.2	0.95
Lucas 'steel' Lopessteel	44 - 51	-7	67.5	0.94

SAW	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Ricardo 'roman' Oliveiraroman	66 - 51	+15	90.0	1.24
Michel 'ewjerkz' Pintoewjerkz	60 - 62	-2	79.4	1.10
Tiago 'JUST' MouraJUST	51 - 50	+1	75.7	1.09
Christopher 'MUTiRiS' FernandesMUTiRiS	41 - 53	-12	69.4	0.94
João 'story' Vieirastory	45 - 47	-2	62.2	0.92