The MongolZ's renaissance since signing Yesuntumur "nin9" Gantulga has reached a new peak after they locked in a top-six finish at IEM Beijing.
"It feels amazing to be on stage in China, our home region," Sodbayar "Techno" Munkhbold said post-game. "I'm glad nin9 won that clutch, it was an important round."
Having beaten Legacy on day one, the Mongolians drew HEROIC in the playoff decider and went about business with a convincing 13-7 win on Inferno after dominating on CT side.
Nuke, HEROIC's pick, was tougher going as 10-7 and 12-10 leads failed to be converted. A magnificent Ludvig "Brollan" Brolin quad-kill was illustrative of HEROIC's fightback but also some terrible spacing from The MongolZ as overtime beckoned.
In extra time it was new boy nin9 who stood tallest with a smart rotation and sharp 1v2 to match. Techno then added another 1v2 that spelt the end of HEROIC's resistance to secure playoffs, with nin9 averaging a 1.86 rating over the 12 rounds of overtime.
After four consecutive ninth-place finishes at Big Events, The MongolZ are back where they belong, in an arena and deservedly so.
HEROIC, meanwhile, drop to the lower bracket for a tough game against Falcons with elimination on the line.
Yesuntumur 'nin9' GantulgaPast 3 months
Falcons
Finn 'karrigan' Andersen
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
René 'TeSeS' Madsen
Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov
Maksim 'kyousuke' Lukin
Danny 'zonic' Sørensen
Ludvig 'Brollan' BrolinPast 3 months
Sodbayar 'Techno' MunkhboldPast 3 months
The MongolZ
Yesuntumur 'nin9' Gantulga
Garidmagnai 'bLitz' Byambasuren
Sodbayar 'Techno' Munkhbold
Usukhbayar '910' Banzragch
Anarbileg 'cobrazera' Uuganbayar
Erdenedalai 'maaRaa' Bayanbat
HEROIC
Ludvig 'Brollan' Brolin
Linus 'nilo' Bergman
Tim 'susp' Ångström
Antonio 'MartinezSa' Martinez
Christoffer 'Chr1zN' Storgaard
Marco 'Snappi' Pfeiffer
Legacy
Andrei 'arT' Piovezan
Eduardo 'dumau' Wolkmer
Bruno 'latto' Rebelatto
Santino 'try' Rigal
Italo 'ksloks' Meinberg
Alan 'adrrr' Riveros