After wins in their respective opening matches LDLC and Space Soldiers faced-off in the Goup A winners’ match where the Turks prevailed 16 - 11 on Cobblestone, while Epsilon beat ENCE to become the victor of Group B, by 16 - 8 on Mirage.

Cobblestone was the map surviving after the veto. Space Soldiers started out on the attacking side and planted the bomb quickly after a B execute, but Alexandre "⁠xms⁠" Forté stuck out the 10 second defuse while Antoine "⁠to1nou⁠" Pirard got the last frag on Çağatay "⁠DESPE⁠" Sedef to bag the first round.

Space Soldiers were able to put a mark on the scoreboard in the third round by winning their first buy. The Turkish team then followed up against LDLC’s force and took the lead against the French-Belgian-British team’s eco.

Space Soldiers then went on the offensive, keeping LDLC constantly in economic trouble, not letting Kévin "⁠Ex6TenZ⁠" Droolans’s team save any weapons. Down 6 – 2, LDLC got three deagle kills and bagged the eco round to not get torn asunder. Space Soldiers weren’t done quite yet, though, as they kept walking over LDLC on the buy rounds taking the half 11 – 4.



Space Soldiers took the winners’ match over LDLC

Space Soldiers won the pistol round to get it to 12 – 4, a distance that seemed insurmountable at this point, especially with LDLC on the dark side of the economic game, but an eco win in the second round kept his team alive. LDLC started putting a comeback together but a three kill round by Ahmet "⁠paz⁠" Karahoca and a double by Engin "⁠ngiN⁠" Kor got Space Soldiers back in it. LDLC’s captain Ex6TenZ got four kills in the following round, though, resetting the Turks and putting their eighth round on the board.

Space Soldiers were able to get their second round of the half on the board, and were just two away from victory, but with LDLC hot on their heals with 11, the next round was crucial. DESPE opened up with two AWP frags on mid as paz followed up with the M4. Finally Ismailcan "⁠XANTARES⁠" Dörtkardeş closed out the round and got his team on match point. to1nou and DESPE ended up in a 1 vs. 1 on the last round, which the Turkish player won giving his team the map and the qualification to the next round.

PGL Regional Minor Championship Europe - ELEAGUE Major 2017 Best of 1 Space Soldiers Matchpage 16 11 LDLC 16 Cobblestone 11

Space Soldiers K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Ahmet 'paz' Karahocapaz 29 - 17 +12 103.4 1.50 Engin 'ngiN' KorngiN 21 - 15 +6 84.9 1.30 Ismailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşXANTARES 18 - 23 -5 94.2 1.18 Çağatay 'DESPE' SedefDESPE 18 - 16 +2 69.4 1.07 Tugay 'TuGuX' KeskinTuGuX 16 - 17 -1 59.7 0.98 LDLC K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Alexandre 'xms' Fortéxms 26 - 19 +7 96.9 1.48 Antoine 'to1nou' Pirardto1nou 16 - 20 -4 65.9 1.01 Kévin 'Ex6TenZ' DroolansEx6TenZ 21 - 19 +2 72.6 0.98 Alex 'ALEX' McMeekinALEX 12 - 22 -10 58.3 0.79 Valentin 'mistou' Balbastromistou 13 - 23 -10 59.0 0.64

The map to be played in this Nordic match-up was Mirage. The Finns started on the CT side while the Swedes started as Ts. Epsilon wasted no time on the pistol round and pushed successfully on the A site for a first round win. The Finns didn’t skip a beat, however, as ENCE stopped Epsilon from taking A for the second time in a row tying the game up. The Swedes, though, relentless on their A pushes won their forcebuy putting ENCE back on the defensive.

With 4 – 1 on the scoreboard for the Swedish side, Epsilon and ENCE played their first proper round of the match. Epsilon spread out on the map, but André "⁠BARBARR⁠" Möller and Fredrik "⁠freddieb⁠" Buö died on A with little impact as the rest of the team watched. Finally it came down to a 2 vs. 2 in which Tony "⁠arvid⁠" Niemelä, lurking in the B site killed William "⁠draken⁠" Sundin as he tried to plant, and while Karl-William "⁠kalle⁠" Haraldsen was able to trade the frag, the clock had already ran down to zero.



REZ has been in great form for Epsilon

Still leading by one, Epsilon bought pistols and armor and rushed B. The key of the round, however, was BARBARR flanking on short backstabbing Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen and Roope "⁠tomsku⁠" Simpanen and winning the round for his team. Epsilon started to get a healthy lead with 6 – 3 on the board and the Finnish squad on a full eco.

From there on, it was Epsilon’s match to lose as the Swedes went into the CT half with a 10 – 5 lead. ENCE still had some fight in them, though, as they managed to get it to 10 – 8 after the pistol round and the following anti-ecos, but three M4A1-S headshots by "⁠⁠" put ENCE back in their place as the Swedish team were able to glide through and win all of the rounds from there on out to close the map 16 – 8.

PGL Regional Minor Championship Europe - ELEAGUE Major 2017 Best of 1 Epsilon Matchpage 16 8 ENCE 16 Mirage 8