Swole Patrol muscle way to EPICENTER Main tournament over Virtus.pro
The EPICENTER Wild Card Qualifier concluded earlier today with Swole Patrol facing off against Virtus.pro, with the latter team losing 2-0 to HellRaisers in the winners' match yesterday. The two teams decided to play on Train, Nuke with a final map of Cache.
Train began with Virtus.pro picking up the pistol round, before Swole Patrol answered back on a full eco and went on a eleven round run to be in complete control of the first half. From there it was Swole Patrol's map, taking a strong 12-3 half before pushing on and only losing one round in the second half, taking pole position in the series with a dominant 16-4 win. Austin "Cooper" Abadir lead the way for his team, picking up a 1.84 rating.
Nuke followed, and this time Swole Patrol opened the map with the first three rounds of the half. This time, it'd be a much closer map between the Americans and the Poles, with Virtus.pro always managing to either equal or one-up Swole Patrol's actions in the match. This meant Virtus.pro went in at the half as narrow 8-7 leaders, with everything to play for in the second half.
That second half came, and Swole Patrol's form from the first map returned at the start of the half, with the team picking up six of the first seven rounds. However, it was Virtus.pro who, once again, came back to one-up Swole Patrol's achievements, taking a narrow 14-13 lead. The Americans weren't done, as they nailed their target through securing the final three rounds of the half, and with Ryan "freakazoid" Abadir securing a 1v3 clutch to claim victory at 16-14.
Swole PatrolVirtus.pro| Swole Patrol |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Austin 'Cooper' Abadir |
51 - 30 | +21 | 97.9 | 86.0% | 1.52 |
| Braxton 'swag' Pierce |
36 - 29 | +7 | 84.9 | 80.0% | 1.28 |
| Ryan 'freakazoid' Abadir |
34 - 35 | -1 | 82.0 | 78.0% | 1.17 |
 Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado |
35 - 29 | +6 | 76.7 | 76.0% | 1.11 |
| Jordan 'Zellsis' Montemurro |
38 - 30 | +8 | 73.7 | 76.0% | 1.10 |
| Virtus.pro |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Michał 'MICHU' Müller |
34 - 39 | -5 | 80.1 | 66.0% | 1.04 |
| Michał 'snatchie' Rudzki |
37 - 39 | -2 | 71.4 | 60.0% | 0.99 |
| Piotr 'morelz' Taterka |
37 - 38 | -1 | 75.9 | 62.0% | 0.98 |
| Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' Jarząbkowski |
27 - 39 | -12 | 57.7 | 54.0% | 0.75 |
| Filip 'NEO' Kubski |
18 - 39 | -21 | 55.3 | 56.0% | 0.60 |
With HellRaisers' win against Virtus.pro yesterday, this means the groups for EPICENTER 2018 will be:
| Group A | Group B |
 ENCE |
 AVANGAR |
 FaZe |
 Liquid |
 HellRaisers |
 NiP |
 Natus Vincere |
Swole Patrol |
Group B is set to be in play tomorrow, October 24th, with Swole Patrol set to play Liquid at 8 AM EDT.
