by in
Heroic were the to win the 2022 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Pinnacle Cup Championship, and they delivered. They completed their impressive tournament run with a 2-0 sweep against Astralis.
Astralis had a perfect record coming into the grand finals. They decimated Evil Geniuses 16-6 in the Group B opener and went on to win Imperial 2-1 in the Winner’s match.
With those victories, they secured a spot in the upper bracket final where they faced Berlin International Gaming (BIG). Although they had a comfortable win in the first map (Ancient) against BIG, Astralis had to pull off an incredible comeback on Dust II to complete the sweep and reach the grand finals.
Heroic started the tournament rather slowly. They were stunned by a newly put-together Fnatic team 16-14 in the tournament opener.
It was the biggest upset of the tournament, as many expected it to be a cakewalk for Heroic. The No. 9 ranked team in the world had an 82% win probability with a $1.27 win odd across several esports betting sites but failed to show their dominance.
However, that counts as the only loss the Danish esports team endured throughout the rest of the tournament. In the Group A elimination match they squared off against MIBR and it ended in a sweep.
Although MIBR put up a decent fight on Inferno, they were blown out on Mirage. Heroic won that map 16-3 to close out the series.
In the Group A Decider match, Heroic exacted revenge on Fnatic. They denied Fnatic a spot in the playoffs with a 2-0 sweep.
Apart from Fnatic, who won the best-of-1 match against Heroic, Team Finest was the only other team that stole a map from the eventual champions. They were not interested in going away easily, but Heroic’s 16-4 dominance on Inferno was the decider.
BIG could not catch a break, as they failed to capitalize on early leads. They were the underdogs coming into the game with a win odd of $3.49 with BetOnline, but they failed to pull off the upset.
Heroic forced overtime on the first map, Mirage and eventually won it. On Overpass, BIG had a 9-6 lead after the first half but were obliterated 10-1 in the second.
The grand final was not as closely contested as many would have hoped. Astralis started a bit shaky, losing Ancient 16-9.
Although they attempted to even the series on Overpass, Heroic showed why they picked the map.
The second half was a completely different story, as they overturned their 9-6 first-half loss. Heroic won 10-2 in the second half, voiding the need to play on Mirage.
Although Heroic’s Casper ‘cadiaN’ Møller had the best plus/minus (14) in the grand final, René ‘TeSeS’ Madsen. He had 42 kills in the series and finished with a game-high 1.38 rating.
For their efforts, Heroic walked away with $150,000 from the $250,000 prize pool. The four-day event, which started on June 8, was held at Sparbanken Skåne Arena in Lund, Sweden.
Heroic has three weeks to rest before their next tournament. They will be participating in the ESL Intel Extreme Masters Cologne scheduled to commence on July 5.
