SAW best ENCE in Brazy Party opening round

The Portuguese side secured the victory after an overtime affair on Anubis.

SAW defeated ENCE in the opening round of Group C at the $333,000 Brazy Party event with a 2-1 scoreline. The favored side of ENCE started the series strong with a 16-8 victory on Vertigo before SAW struck back with a decisive 16-6 win on their opponent's map pick, Nuke.

That brought the series onto the third map of Anubis, where SAW put together a strong CT side to come back from 4-11 down and force out overtime after a four-round streak in the dying moments of the half. Once in overtime, SAW capitalized on their momentum and closed out the map 19-16 to move on to the Group C winners' match.

ENCE went for a gamble in the veto as they banned out Overpass in the second rotation and left Anubis in the pool — a map where the European combine had a 12% win rate coming into the game. Whether it was overconfidence or just a wish to practice the match in an official capacity, the decision failed to work out as a weak offensive half provided a killing blow to their chances of victory.

ENCE came into the online event after a successful RMR campaign that secured them a Challengers Stage spot at the Paris Major. The European combine dropped down to the 0-2 bracket after best-of-one losses to Monte and FORZE, but fared much better in the best-of-three portion of the Swiss system to qualify for the Major with a 3-2 record.

Considering they are one of only two top-10 teams at Brazy Party, ENCE will no doubt be disappointed after losing to a team ranked 27 places below them in the world ranking. The defeat isn't the end of the road for the European combine, though, as they are set to face off against GamerLegion in an elimination match on Saturday.

Conversely, SAW will be pleased to bounce back after a tough RMR campaign, where they exited the tournament with a 0-3 record after losses to Virtus.pro, MOUZ, and OG.

Since then, the team added Rafael "⁠arrozdoce⁠" Wing in place of Tiago "⁠JUST⁠" Moura, and despite the 20-year-old not putting up the most breathtaking performances, the team has won both of their matches with him on the roster. The Portuguese side now moves on to the winners' match, where they will once again assume the role of underdog against Astralis.

Date	Matches
Brazy Party 2023
29/04/2023	GamerLegion 11:00 ENCE	Match
29/04/2023	Astralis 17:35 SAW	Match