HellRaisers march on in London

HellRaisers are through to the playoffs at the CEVO Gfinity Professional S9 Finals after a 2-0 victory over Virtus.pro (16-14 on Mirage and 16-11 on Cobblestone).

Group A's Winners Match pitted the new HellRaisers lineup, fresh off beating OpTic 2-1, against the Polish veterans of Virtus.pro, who had edged past Splyce on three maps during the opening day of the tournament.

Mirage was the first map of the series, and here HellRaisers were simply dominant during the early stages as they got out to a commanding 7-0 lead. It was only then that Virtus.pro finally managed to find a way to break through HR's defensive setup, but Tomáš "⁠oskar⁠" Šťastný's men never lost control of the situation as they closed out the half up 10-5.

Virtus.pro looked much livelier in the second half, winning nine of the first 12 rounds to take the lead for the very first time and get inches away from map point. But much to everyone's surprise, the Polish team were unable to go all the way as HellRaisers claimed the final three rounds of the map to take the lead in the series.

HellRaisers through to the playoffs 

Next up was Cobblestone, where Filip "⁠NEO⁠" Kubski came into action in the pistol round on the Terrorist side, getting four kills to his name to give Virtus.pro the first round. Despite losing the following round, the Polish team rallied back right after and put together a small run of rounds.

Down 1-4, HellRaisers replied thanks to a 1vs2 clutch from Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk and went on a great run that saw them take a 7-4 lead. However, Virtus.pro were not going to let their opponents run away with the lead as they won the final rounds of the half to take an 8-7 advantage.

HellRaisers got off to a flying start on the Terrorist side and won six rounds in a row to bring the scoreline to 13-7. With no margin for error, Virtus.pro dug deep and secured four consecutive rounds to keep their hopes alive, but HR held on and sealed the deal in convincing fashion.

CEVO Gfinity Professional Season 9 FinalsBest of 3 Virtus.proMatchpage 0 2 29th April 2016 HellRaisers 14Mirage 16 11Cobblestone 16

HellRaisers	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Tomáš 'oskar' Šťastnýoskar	54 - 35	+19	98.2	1.47
Martin 'STYKO' StykSTYKO	43 - 36	+7	82.6	1.11
Kirill 'ANGE1' KarasiowANGE1	37 - 36	+1	73.6	1.08
Vladyslav 'bondik' Nechyporchukbondik	42 - 36	+6	77.8	1.08
Patrik 'Zero' ŽúdelZero	34 - 36	-2	67.5	1.01

Virtus.pro	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskipashaBiceps	40 - 43	-3	81.6	1.09
Wiktor 'TaZ' WojtasTaZ	39 - 43	-4	75.2	0.99
Filip 'NEO' KubskiNEO	34 - 40	-6	79.6	0.96
Janusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiSnax	31 - 41	-10	62.6	0.85
Paweł 'byali' Bielińskibyali	33 - 43	-10	65.6	0.83

Filip 'NEO' Kubski Age: 28 Team: Virtus.pro Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 975 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.66 Martin 'STYKO' Styk Age: 20 Team: HellRaisers Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 300 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.67 Tomáš 'oskar' Šťastný Age: 24 Team: HellRaisers Rating 1.0: 1.16 Maps played: 320 KPR: 0.80 DPR: 0.66