Our Road to the Major series continues in the CIS Minor with HellRaisers. Though Vladyslav 'bondik' Nechyporchuk was loaned to TyLoo for a short period, this team has been together since August, 2017. The roster consists of:

Kirill 'ANGE1' Karasov

Kirill 'ANGE1' Karasov Vladyslav 'bondik' Nechyporchuk

Vladyslav 'bondik' Nechyporchuk Bence 'DeadFox' Böröcz

Bence 'DeadFox' Böröcz Özgür 'woxic' Eker

Özgür 'woxic' Eker Issa 'ISSAA' Murad

HellRaisers' player's history at the CSGO majors

CIS Closed Qualifier

HellRaisers was one of 8 teams invited without having to go through the Open Qualifiers.

They went 3-0 in matches in the Closed Qualifier. They started with a 2-0 sweep of 5balls, 16-14 on Overpass, and 16-9 on Inferno. They played better on Inferno, 5balls pick, than they did on their own map pick.

Their second match was with eL'quvet. This was another 2-0 sweep, with HR winning Train 16-5 and Mirage 11-4. They started on T side both maps, jumping out to 10-5 and 11-4 leads.

HellRaisers drew Nemiga for their third match, and once again swept their opponents 2-0. On Nemiga's pick of Mirage, HellRaisers embarrassed their opponents 16-1. Though Nemiga put up a little more fight on Train, HR still won 16-9, securing a top seed in the CIS Minor Group Stage.

CIS Minor

Group Stage

HellRaisers secured the top seed in Group A. They shared the group with pro100, PLINK-TECH and Nemiga Gaming. Unfortunately Nemiga could not get their visas approved and had to drop out. This gave HR a bye for their first match of the Group Stage.

In the second match of the group HellRaisers faced PLINK-TECH on Mirage. They comfortably beat PLINK 16-11 to secure a spot in the Playoffs.

Upper Bracket Semifinals

HellRaisers drew AVANGAR for their first match in the playoffs. Map 1 was HR's pick of Dust II. They chose right, as they jupmed out to an 11-4 first half lead on CT side and then closed the game out with 5 straight rounds in the second half. This gave them the map 16-4 and the match lead 1-0 headed to Cache.

AVANGAR chose Cache for map 2, and HR looked lost on T side, giving up 11 rounds to AVANGAR in the first half. Luckily they turned it all around in the second half, winning 12 of 14 rounds to sweep the match 2-0 with a 16-13 victory. This gave HR a spot in the Upper Bracket final against pro100.

Upper Bracket Final

Map 1 of the UB Final was HellRaisers choice, and they picked Dust II. The first half saw HR on CT side, and taking the first 7 rounds. However, pro100 came back and HR ended up barely winning the half 7-8. They duplicated this result in the second half to win the match 14-16.

Pro100 chose Inferno for the second map. HellRaisers fell behind in the first half 9-6, but on CT side in the second half they dominated 2-10. This gave them an 11-16 map win and yet another 2-0 sweep. This sweep clinched a spot in the Grand Final and the New Challengers Stage of the Major.

Grand Final

Team Spirit was HellRaisers opponent for the Grand Final, and they chose Overpass as the first map. It did not start well for them, as HellRaisers took a 10-5 first half lead on CT side. Spirit managed a hard fought comeback in the second half, but fell just short, losing to HellRaisers 16-14.

Mirage was HellRaisers choice for map 2. HellRaisers fell behind early 5-10, and that was a death sentence for the map. Spirit easily closed the map out in the second half by winning 6 of 7 rounds to win 6-16, and send the Grand Final to the decider map of Dust II.

On Dust II, HellRaisers again let Team Spirit took a commanding first half lead on T side, 3-12. They managed to come back though, winning 13 or 15 rounds on their T side, 16-14. This gave them the match win 2-1 and 1st place in the CIS Minor.

HellRaisers' Jordanian player ISSAA, at DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018 (Image by HLTV.org

Year to Date

2018 has been an up and down year, but overall HellRaisers has performed admirably in mid-sized international events They won the Minor, and Bets.net Masters:Season 1, placed 2nd at DreamHack Open Tours, and placed 3rd/4th at V4 Future Sports Festival-Budapest.

Player to Watch

Issa 'ISSAA' Murad

While Özgür 'woxic' Eker is the muscle of the team, ISSAA is the heart of the team. As he performs, so does the team. He must be consistent and have a few exceptional matches in order to propel the team through a good run, especially if there are any visa problems for woxic.