INTZ clinch spot in Odense; Envy escape demotion as Luminosity fall to MDL
The round robin online group stage of ESL Pro League Season 8 has finally come to a close, after an accelerated month, with the six North American teams headed to the finals on Odense finally decided.
Playing their first season of Pro League in North America, INTZ were determined to clinch the final Odense spot, being 9-11 and with the spot within a hand's reach. Taking on Rogue, INTZ found the miracle they needed on Dust2, as João "felps" Vasconcellos led the Brazilian squad to a 16-12 victory.
Things did not look up for the team as they immediately lost Inferno shortly afterwards, INTZ had 32 points in total, with a -5 round difference, putting them in contention for the spot.
Of the final matches played today, the most important matchups were Luminosity vs eUnited and Renegades vs Envy, as they were the matches that ultimately decided who would be direct demoted to MDL Season 30. The former match also proved to be even more important, as eUnited had the chance to usurp the spot if INTZ had a lower round difference.
eUnited dominated Luminosity, handily taking Overpass in a fast 16-2, giving eUnited a large boost. Cache followed, with Luminosity nearly tying with eUnited at halftime 7-8. Luckily, Kaleb "moose" Jayne kept his team's chin up, as they rolled the second half to take the map 16-11, winning two maps and tying with INTZ at 32 points. However, with a -13 round difference, eUnited lost to INTZ in the round difference comparison, meaning the Brazilian team were guaranteed the spot in the Odense finals.
The last major matchup that played out tonight was between Envy and Renegades, with the latter team playing from Australia. Due to Envy's poor performance at the beginning of the season, the team needed to find two wins in relegation to guarantee a win over Luminosity, who have one overtime win.
The Australian team's ping disadvantage hit them hard on Cache, as no player on Renegades was able to achieve anything higher than a 60% KAST, losing them the first map 16-6. Mirage followed shortly afterwards, but the time with the ping allowed Renegades to better adjust to the lag, allowing Jay "liazz" Tregillgas to take the lead on the map. Despite the stronger performance from Renegades, Envy were still able to overpower them, edging out the second map 16-13 and giving them two map wins in regulation, giving them 20 points over Luminosity's 17.
Rogue and Envy are now set to play in ESL Pro League Relegation, which will be played at the ESEA Global Challenge event, whose details have yet to be announced. The fate of demotion has ultimately fallen upon Luminosity, who will play in MDL Season 30.
With the regular season complete, the current standings in EPL can be found below:
| Team | Matches | Wins | Losses | RD | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  MIBR |
22 | 19 | 3 | +107 | 55 |
| 2 |  Ghost |
22 | 16 | 6 | +72 | 46 |
| 3 |  Liquid |
22 | 13 | 9 | +39 | 40 |
| 4 |  NRG |
22 | 14 | 8 | +60 | 40 |
| 5 |  Renegades |
22 | 12 | 10 | +33 | 38 |
| 6 | INTZ |
22 | 10 | 12 | -5 | 32 |
| 7 | eUnited |
22 | 11 | 11 | -13 | 32 |
| 8 | Cloud9 |
22 | 10 | 12 | -26 | 29 |
| 9 | compLexity |
22 | 8 | 14 | -24 | 24 |
| 10 | Rogue |
22 | 7 | 15 | -57 | 23 |
| 11 | Envy |
22 | 6 | 16 | -102 | 20 |
| 12 | Luminosity |
22 | 6 | 16 | -99 | 17 |
