MASSIVE UPSET: Sashi Esport Qualify For EWC Over Cloud9 And Eternal Fire

Danish prospects in Sashi Esport have completed an unbelievable qualifier run to book a spot at their first LAN tournament, the Esports World Cup. They went through two Top 8 teams at the Copenhagen Major, Cloud9 and Eternal Fire.

Who Are Sahi Esport?

We don’t blame you if you’ve never heard of Sashi Esport! The Sashi squad has a relatively unknown group of players, so let’s uncover the roster and briefly go through the players. 

The Sashi Esport lineup consists of:

• Oliver “kwezz” Rasmussen
• Oliver “IceBerg” Berg
• Philip “Lucky” Ewald
• Casper “Cabbi” Jensen
• Mikkel “MisT” Thomsen
• Nicolai “HUNDEN” Peterson (Coach)

Though the Sashi roster has yet to achieve much, they have a few players whose names might ring a bell.

MistR and Lucky were two players who have played for the legendary Danish organization Astralis. MistR began his professional career in the Astralis Talent team before he was promoted to the main roster. Meanwhile, Lucky was immediately invited to play with gla1ve and the team. Both joined the team at different iterations and could not achieve too many results during their time on the roster. 

HUNDEN is Heroic’s former coach. He used to be a well-respected personality in the scene until he was involved in a massive scandal for using a spectator bug to gain an unfair advantage. He was penalized for his actions but returned to coach the Sashi squad.

The remaining players remain unproven and have yet to make a mark in the Tier 1 scene. Hopefully, the team’s run at the Esports World Cup could net them some reputation in the industry. 

Defeating Cloud9, Not Once, But Twice

Sashi immediately started the tournament with a fierce opponent: the veterans at Cloud9. However, they were fortunate that the star-studded Russian squad had just undergone a massive roster change, losing their star rifler, electroNic, and temporarily fielding a substitute, alpha. 

Despite a shaky Cloud9 roster, it was still unexpected for Sashi to pull off a 2-1 victory against them. The Danes demolished Cloud9 on the first map, Nuke, 13-8. Boombl4 and the team replied with a 13-9 victory on Ancient, but Sashi ultimately took the series after a close 13-11 on Mirage. In the series, the stand-in, alpha, became the highest-performing player on the Cloud9 roster. 

Unfortunately, Sashi lost their Upper Bracket Final match against Eternal Fire, meaning they were knocked to the Lower Bracket. Cloud9 met them again after eliminating the BetBoom Team from the tournament.

In the second confrontation between Sashi and Cloud9, fans thought the previous encounter was a total fluke. However, Sashi dismantled Cloud9 in a swift 2-0 victory.

The first map was again, Nuke, where Sashi posted an 8-4 first half to win the map 13-8. On Cloud9’s pick of Ancient, the young prospects blew their opposition out of the water with an unbelievable 13-4 win. 

This victory sent waves to the community, but the message most fans got from the series was that Cloud9 is nothing without electroNic, and nobody really gave any credit to Sashi. 

Revenge On Eternal Fire

The Sashi squad was set to play a rematch against Eternal Fire for all the marbles, as this second meeting was the final match to qualify for the Esports World Cup.

In the previous matchup, XANTARES led the charge with a 1.42 series rating to sweep Sashi 2-0. The Danes put up a fight on their favorite map, Nuke, 11-13. However, Sashi stood no chance on Eternal Fire’s pick of Vertigo.

Sashi went for their comfort pick of Nuke on the opening map of the Grand Final. It was a thrilling match, as both teams were neck-in-neck. Miraculously, Sashi could take the map in overtime, 16-14. To tie the series, Eternal Fire quickly swept Sashi on Vertigo, which was the same story as the previous match. 

In the most important match of his Counter-Strike career so far, Cabbi went 25-11 on Overpass to defeat Eternal Fire 13-4, winning the series 2-1. The 25-year-old posted 153 ADR and a career-high rating of 2.23.

This time, the community was genuinely stunned by the performance from Sashi. Eternal Fire is a team that nearly defeated Na’Vi in the Quarter Final of the Copenhagen Major, yet Sashi made the final series look like light work. 

Community Reactions

Despite Sashi’s success and hard work, some fans could not believe the result and started accusing the team of cheating. It didn’t seem right that a Tier 3 team that could barely win matches against teams their level could suddenly defeat Cloud9 and Eternal Fire, two teams in HLTV’s Top 10 rankings. 

Fans quickly turned to the team’s coach, HUNDEN, who was notoriously known for abusing a cheating bug during his time in Heroic. 

“HUDNEN coaching a team through online qualifiers to get to a million event, what can go wrong?” said a community member.

Recently, there have been many cases of Tier 3 teams abusing radar hacks in online matches to gain an advantage over their opponents. With the qualifier being played in an online format, there is no way for tournament staff to check each player’s computers.

Esports World Cup Bound

Cheats or no cheats, Sashi still pulled off an incredible run to qualify for the most significant event of their lives. MistR, Lucky, and HUNDEN have experience playing in large events from their previous teams, but the rest of the roster has yet to make many LAN appearances. 

The final prize pool of the Esports World Cup has not been confirmed yet. However, the organizers announced they would distribute $60 million over multiple esport titles. We are realistically expecting at least $1 million for its CS2 event. 

The event will feature the best teams in the world, including FaZe Clan, Team Vitality, MOUZ, Team Spirit, and G2. As of now, Sashi has not received validation from the community. 

The community is waiting to see if Sashi can replicate their gameplay in a LAN environment and if they can take maps off the top teams worldwide. 

Header: Sashi Esport