With a 2-0 victory, #Sprout defeated Evil Geniuses from the IEM Katowice Play-in and survived to fight another day. Despite the fact that Sanzhar #neaLaN Ishkakov’s team defeated Heroic there during the BLAST Premier Spring Groups, the European combo showed no concern and preffered to play on Ancient.

 Match highlights

Ismail #refrezh Ali and company began their map choice on the attack and applied pressure right away in order to establish an early cushion, which would later in the game prove to be critical. Down by two, Evil Geniuses determined to win the half 9-6 in order to maintain their chances of robbing the map from Sprout.

Jerric #wiz Jiang, a newcomer was the second-highest ranked player on his team, only behind neaLaN, and has shown moments of brilliance with both rifles and the AWP, but it just wasn’t enough to stop a greedy Sprout that discovered the secret to gain mid-round advantages. As the map came down to the wire, Rasmus #Zyphon Nordfoss won a vital 1v2 and Sprout came back from a 12-14 deficit to win the last round.

Evil Geniuses entered Mirage reeling after their loss on Ancient and were immediately forced into a difficult situation as Sprout linked five straight and a winning T-side pistol round was reversed after losing to a forcebuy. Despite the disturbing circumstances, Evil Geniuses maintained their offensive momentum and won the first half 10-5.

In the second map, the Sprout kept the game alive after cutting the lead to 6-12 by making quick plays on the T-side and trusting in their teammates before Evil Geniuses could respond. Even then, it was only one round on a map that was certain to be won by a Sprout, and the lineup’s players were all operating at peak efficiency, making their attacks appear easy.

Sprout won the game, 16-13, avoiding a trip to the Inferno final, where they fell to OG in OT in their IEM Katowice Play-in opener. They will now play Spirit at 19:30 for a place in the group stage of the competition.

 Learning from defeat

After being eliminated from the BLAST Premier Spring Groups and IEM Katowice, Evil Geniuses are still far from their best, but Timothy #autimatic Ta sees room for growth. “Despite the outcome I’m pleased with how we played” he said. Sprout’s defeat, according to him was easier to take than Fnatic’s 8-16 defeat in their first best-of-one match. Although there is no doubt that we would have preffered a better outcome, this game taught as a lot”. said Timothy at the end.