Imperial narrowly best IHC to go 2-2 at the Antwerp Challengers Stage
A grueling BO3 series played host to the 1-2 elimination match between Imperial and IHC earlier, with the Brazilians managing to squeeze out the win in the end. Imperial now go onto being a 2-2 team with their final match of the stage set to take place tomorrow as another BO3 with their opponent yet to be determined.
The match kicked off on Mirage where both teams traded equal blows in the first half, ending 7-8 for IHC on the T-side. After swapping sides, Imperial seemed to have been overwhelmed, only winning four rounds on their T-side. Of the four rounds, two were post-plant clutches by Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo and Fernando "fer" Alvarenga, on rounds 18 and 23 respectively. In the end, IHC took their map pick 16-11 with a stand-out performance by Tengis "sk0R" Batjargal.
Overpass was the second map, and Imperial's pick, so it was expected of them to perform better — which they did. This time, Imperial started on the T-side where again both teams drew equal blows ending 8-7 for Imperial at the half with Ricardo "boltz" Prass posting a 1.51 T-side rating. Once Imperial were on the CT-side, the rest of their players managed to kick into gear, all posting ratings over 1.00 and only letting IHC win two rounds, closing out the map 16-10.
The decider for the series came down to Inferno where one team was, unfortunately, going home. Kicking off the CT-side with their continued momentum from the second map, Imperial finally posted a respectable first half of 10-5 with both boltz and FalleN leading the way this time. Despite turning around his lacking performance on the T-side, Bat-Enkh "kabal" Batbayar was unable to rescue IHC on their CT-side, even with his 1.29 rating, with them eventually losing the map after securing 6 rounds — the final score being 16-12 for Imperial.
Although being the most picked 0-3 team for the official Pick'Em Challenge, IHC managed to surprise everyone with their stand-out LAN performances both here and at the Asia-Pacific RMR. Unfortunately, they now head home back to Mongolia where they will continue to compete in the APAC division of the ESL Challenger League. Imperial's journey at the Major continues, for now.
ImperialIHC| Imperial |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ricardo 'boltz' Prass |
66 - 44 | +22 | 87.4 | 76.5% | 1.35 |
| Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo |
62 - 46 | +16 | 79.5 | 70.4% | 1.22 |
| Vinicius 'VINI' Figueiredo |
43 - 49 | -6 | 65.2 | 70.4% | 0.95 |
| Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga |
49 - 55 | -6 | 65.3 | 65.4% | 0.93 |
| Lincoln 'fnx' Lau |
46 - 51 | -5 | 59.8 | 65.4% | 0.88 |
| IHC |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Yesuntumur 'nin9' Gantulga |
54 - 48 | +6 | 70.3 | 75.3% | 1.07 |
| Garidmagnai 'bLitz' Byambasuren |
55 - 57 | -2 | 77.7 | 67.9% | 1.04 |
| Bat-Enkh 'kabal' Batbayar |
49 - 51 | -2 | 71.8 | 66.7% | 0.99 |
| Tengis 'sk0R' Batjargal |
51 - 53 | -2 | 71.1 | 60.5% | 0.96 |
| Sodbayar 'Techno' Munkhbold |
35 - 59 | -24 | 56.9 | 56.8% | 0.71 |
The final day of the Challenger Stage at the PGL Antwerp Major starts tomorrow at 06:00AM. Depending on how the remainder of the matches go today, Imperial will be facing Outsiders, Astralis, or forZe tomorrow.
