Apeks destroy Imperial Esports to advance to Mid Bracket semifinals

The emotions of the ESL Pro League S18 continue, and, this time, Group C had two exciting matches that left us with the two semifinalists of the Mid Bracket. One of these matches was between Apeks and Imperia Esports, where the European squad crushed the Brazilians by 2-0.

Undoubtedly, Apeks was the clear favorite to take the victory in this series, but Imperial Esports could have done more, as the two maps they played were really balanced. However, Apeks knew how to keep their sanity in the final part of each map and managed to take the victory.

On the other hand, the Brazilian squad falls to the Lower Bracket of Group C, where they will play for their lives in each of the series they play, and, from now on, they will have no margin for error.

Let’s see what happened in the match between Apeks and Imperial in the ESL Pro League S18 Group C Mid Bracket.

Apeks send Imperial to the Lower Bracket

As we mentioned, the series had the Apeks boys as favorites, as the team has shown great play throughout the season. However, we all knew Imperial would not make it easy, as the Brazilian teams are a tough nut to crack. Likewise, even though both maps were tight and either could have taken the win, Apeks could hold on, in the end, to take the 2-0 victory and send Imperial Esports to the Lower Bracket.

The series took place on Overpass and Ancient.

Overpass

It all started at Overpass, Imperial Esports’ map pick, where the South American squad came close to winning an excellent victory. Ricardo “boltz” Prass and João “felps” Vasconcellos carried their team to a partial victory in the first half in their T Side by 8-7. Besides, as we know, winning so many rounds attacking in Overpass is always a complicated mission.

Then, at the change of sides, it was Macedonian Damjan “kyxsan” Stoilkovski and Swede Tim “nawwk” Jonasson who brought Apeks back to life as, little by little, they started to work their way back from the scoreboard. On the other hand, it is worth mentioning that Imperial was ahead on the map with a score of 14-11; that is, they were only 2 rounds away from winning the first map. However, Apeks put up a spectacular offense, and they won the last 5 rounds in a row to take the victory by 16-14.

.@apeksgg steal away @imperialesports‘ pick of Overpass 16-14 😳

They’re going to Ancient next!#ESLProLeague pic.twitter.com/d6nO9vQwDc

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) September 15, 2023

Ancient

The teams then moved to Ancient, the Apeks map pick, where we again enjoyed a truly spectacular game from both sides.

In the first half, the Apeks boys proved why they selected this map, as they managed an excellent 10-5 partial victory on their T Side. Nawwk and kyxsan again rode the team on their shoulders to lead them to this victory. However, when the sides changed, the Brazilian squad started to wake up and evened the score by 11-11.

Finally, it was all over, as the Apek’s defense was reactivated, and they managed to win 5 of the next 7 rounds to take the victory by 16-13.

.@apeksgg close it with a 2-0 win, sending @imperialesports down to the Last Chance Bracket!

16-14 Overpass
16-13 Ancient#ESLProLeague pic.twitter.com/qpPBOPQhIU

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) September 15, 2023

Header: ESL