Heroic pulled out a three-map win and Natus Vincere joined them atop Group D with their second win Thursday at the ESL Pro League Season 15 in Dusseldorf, Germany.
Heroic utilized overtime to beat Astralis 2-1 and Natus Vincere topped Evil Geniuses 2-0. AGO earned their first victory of group play, a 2-1 win over Complexity Gaming.
The 24-team Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event is divided into four round-robin groups in the opening stage. The winners from each group will advance to the quarterfinals while second- and third-place teams advance to the Round of 12.
All matches are best-of-three until the best-of-five final on April 10. Ninjas in Pyjamas took Group A, going 4-1 in five matches, while last week FURIA Esports clinched the top spot in Group B. Movistar Riders claimed Group C, finishing 5-0.
The winner of the $823,000 event earns $175,000 and entry to the BLAST World Final 2022. That team will also garner 1,300 Pro Tour points.
Astralis beat Heroic 16-12 on Ancient to open their match, but Heroic rallied on Overpass for a 19-16 victory. The two all-Danish squads moved to Vertigo for the deciding match, and Heroic eked out a 22-19 victory to remain unbeaten.
Martin “stavn” Lund led Heroic with 91 kills and a plus-22 kills-to-deaths differential. He was backed by Rasmus “sjuush” Beck (81 kills, plus-14) and Rene “TeSeS” Madsen (81 kills, plus-10). Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke had 90 kills for Astralis with a plus-6 differential.
Na’Vi dominated Evil Geniuses 16-2 on Overpass before finishing them off with a 16-10 victory on Dust II. All five Na’Vi players finished with positive differentials and at least 30 kills. Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev of Ukraine led the way with 45 kills and a plus-26 K-D.
Complexity took the first map of their match against AGO, 16-11 on Dust II, but AGO battled back with triumphs of 16-11 on Ancient and 16-12 on Vertigo to get in the win column. Maciej “F1KU” Miklas led the all-Polish AGO side with 63 kills and a plus-6 K-D.
Group D action continues Friday with three matches:
Astralis vs. AGO
Heroic vs. Evil Geniuses
Natus Vincere vs. Complexity Gaming
Group D standings, with win-loss record and point differential:
T1. Natus Vincere, 2-0, +38
T1. Heroic, 2-0, +11
T3. Astralis, 1-1, +13
T3. AGO, 1-1, -14
T5. Complexity Gaming, 0-2, -13
T5. Evil Geniuses, 0-3, -35
–Field Level Media