BC.Game have been crowned the champions of Elisa Esports Breakout Series 1 after beating ENCE 2-0 (13-11 Mirage, 16-13 Nuke) in the $17,163 Finnish tournament's grand final.
The tournament marked the debut of BC.Game's new roster with Emil "Magisk" Reif as in-game leader and the reunited Mongolian duo of Ayush "mzinho" Batbold and Azbayar "Senzu" Munkhbold, moves that resulted in the team starting from scratch on the VRS.
A flawless run through the round-robin group stage put them back on the board at rank #150, and a 1.84 and 1.76-rated series from Senzu and Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev ensured BC.Game marched past SINQU in the semis to set up a title decider against ENCE, who had also gone flawless in Group A and beat HAVU in the semis.
The newly rebuilt Finnish squad were no pushovers in the final, either, leading early on Mirage as only Senzu and mzinho found impact amidst a flat offensive start. ENCE then converted the pistol after the swap and were moments away from stealing BC.Game's pick, leading 11-6, but the Mongolian duo powered a lockout defense from then on to clinch victory.
The script flipped on Nuke, where BC.Game made up for losing an early string of rounds to lead 7-5 at the break, and extended that with a pistol and conversion win. ENCE's young, inexperienced roster didn't crumble, though, scraping wins in several late-round disadvantaged scenarios, and showing tenacity by bringing the map to overtime after trailing 9-12.
But their fortunes turned in the extra rounds as BC.Game won two crucial clutches, starting with a masterful AK-47 4k and 1v3 by s1mple and followed two rounds later by a 1v2 from Denis "electroNic" Sharipov, and that was enough for BC.Game to close out and clinch the title.
Senzu ended the event as the highest-rated player, averaging a 1.48 rating over seven maps, and BC.Game's final win pushed them further up the VRS to enter the top 100 at #84.
The team will now turn its attention to the Esports World Cup Open Qualifier, which will run from August 7-9 in Paris, France with up to 128 teams and offer four spots at the $2,000,000 main event. 64 teams are currently signed up on the tournament page, including the likes of Liquid, BIG, HEROIC, and 100 Thieves.
HAVU
Samu 'uli' Leirilaakso
Aleksi 'Alxc' Lähevirta
Pekko 'p3kko' Korkalainen
Otto 'ottob' Virtanen
Juho '8Juho8' Kankaanpää
Petteri 'peku' Jaakkola
BC.Game
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev
Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov
Emil 'Magisk' Reif
Azbayar 'Senzu' Munkhbold
Ayush 'mzinho' Batbold
Wiktor 'TaZ' Wojtas
100 Thieves
Nicolai 'device' Reedtz
Håvard 'rain' Nygaard
Jack 'Gizmy' von Spreckelsen
William 'sirah' Kjærsgaard
Alex 'poiii' Nyholm Sundgren
Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander
Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov
SINQU
Henri 'Heke' Heikkinen
Eemeli 'Eem3l1' Lieska
Emil 'imbaemba' Haataja
Anton 'MikOne' Mikkonen
Tuomas 'doivo' Kontkanen
Casper 'Louna' Lounavuori
Azbayar 'Senzu' Munkhbold
Emil 'Magisk' Reif
Ayush 'mzinho' Batbold
HEROIC
Ludvig 'Brollan' Brolin
Linus 'nilo' Bergman
Tim 'susp' Ångström
Antonio 'MartinezSa' Martinez
Christoffer 'Chr1zN' Storgaard
Joonas 'doto' Forss
BIG
Johannes 'tabseN' Wodarz
Jon 'JDC' de Castro
Josef 'faveN' Baumann
Benjamin 'blameF' Bremer
Gleb 'gr1ks' Gazin
Sebastian 'xenn' Hoch
ENCE
Henri 'HENU' Ylilehto
Aleksi 'millert' Lehtopuu
Teemu 'teme' Korva
Niki 'Cliqq' Kinnunen
Giorgi 'Schwarz' Gakhokidze
Aleksi 'allu' Jalli
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev
Liquid
Keith 'NAF' Markovic
Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski
Mario 'malbsMd' Samayoa
Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou
Georgi 'Jorko' Mitev
Viktor 'flashie' Tamás Bea