ENCE and NRG advance to StarLadder Berlin’s Champion Stage

ENCE and NRG in Top 8 of Berlin’s Champion Stage to fight for the title

Counter Strike’s Berlin Major has seen its first two teams advance to the top 8 bracket stage. In the first BO3, ENCE won a convincing 2-0 over Vitality. Similarly, NRG took Astralis down in 2 maps, albeit in a much more dramatic fashion.

ENCE’s Advance

The first High match of the day saw the Finish side of ENCE take on the French Vitality. Map vetos took them to Nuke and Dust II with a Mirage tiebreaker. ENCE started out hot, taking an 8-7 lead on Nuke T side. After Vitality took 3 of the first 4 rounds in the second half, the game looked to be evening out. At least until ENCE took 7 CT rounds in a row to close out the map 16-10. Allu on ENCE top fragged the map with 26 kills and 107.8 ADR (Average Damage per Round).

Yes. Yes, @alluCSGO knows.❤️ #BerlinMajor pic.twitter.com/6yM9mqDWaj

— Red Bull Esports ???? #PAXWest Challenge Mode (@redbullesports) August 30, 2019

Dust II was even more one-sided, with ENCE grabbing an 11-4 half from CT side. With Allu spearheading their attack, ENCE closed out in a convincing 16-7 fashion. Allu again top fragged with 29 kills, over 10 above the next highest in the server. Vitality will play mousesports for the next spot in the top 8, while ENCE advances off a dominating performance.

NRG’s Advance

The other High match started in a much different fashion. Astralis and NRG went head to head on Train and Nuke with an Overpass tiebreaker. Train started with NRG taking a commanding 10-5 half on T side, but Astralis answered back by winning a 10-5 half of their own. A marathon of 20+ overtime rounds ensued, with NRG grinding out many close rounds for a 31-28 victory. The highlight of the match was CeRq’s insane AWP ace to clutch out OT 2. This match also tied the record for most rounds played in a map at a CS:GO major. NRG’s CeRq dropped a massive 52 kills, while 5 other players managed 40 bombs.

With their mental game in tatters, Astralis went on to put up a measly three rounds on their Nuke T side. Two of those three rounds are thanks to massive clutches from Xyp9x. But NRG were undeterred and easily closed out the Dane’s map 16-4, Astralis’s worst Nuke loss ever. Stanislaw managed to put up a massive 24-7 KD with 126.4 ADR in only 20 rounds. Astralis will play vs Cr4zy for their next chance at advancing.

What has been an unpredictable major so far continues with Astralis, Liquid, Na’Vi and FaZe all fighting for their remaining tournament lives. Only time will tell who makes the next round alongside ENCE and NRG. The final win went however to Astralis.

Credit: Zakaria Almughrabi