Group B of Elisa Invitational starts on Friday 1st of May, 13:00 EEST. Group B consists of Heroic, KOVA Esports, North and Nordavind. The winner of the group claims a spot in the second qualifier final, which is played on Sunday afternoon. Only the last-placed team is eliminated before the playoffs.

North

NationalityAgePlayer
Denmark30René cajunb Borg
Denmark25Mathias MSL Lauridsen
Denmark23Philip aizy Aistrup
Denmark21Markus Kjaerbye Kjærbye
Denmark25Nicklas gade Gade
Sweden33Jimmy Jumpy Berndtsson (coach)

North is seeking their way back to top-tier Counter-Strike. Last year was rough, and 2020 hasn’t been looking too good either for the team that won the Dreamhack Masters Stockholm 2018. Mathias “MSL” Lauridsen led the team to take that trophy, but was benched less than a month later after disappointing London Major. MSL came back in January and North is definitely the favorite team to win Group B under his leadership.

Heroic

NationalityAgePlayer
Denmark24Casper cadiaN Møller
Denmark20Johannes b0RUP Borup
Denmark21Nikolaj niko Kristensen
Denmark18Martin stavn Lund
Denmark19René TeSeS Madsen

The roster of Heroic has gone through a lot during these last few months. Originally, they should have been part of ESL Pro League Season 11, but their roster was bought by Chinese FunPlus Phoenix to participate in Flashpoint Season 1. However, that wasn’t the whole story.

The deal was never finished, and when Astralis announced Patrick “es3tag” Hansen will join their ranks right after his Heroic contract ends, everything fell apart. Players left Flashpoint and returned to Heroic. After adding René “TeSeS” Madsen and Nikolaj “niko” Kristensen, Heroic wants to come back like they never left.

KOVA Esports

NationalityAgePlayer
Finland22Samu uli Leirilaakso
Finland22Lauri pietola Hietala
Finland18Samuli twixie Herrala
Finland23Petteri peku Jaakkola
Finland17Nikita derkeps Sirmitev

Young Finns of KOVA surprised many, when they managed to grind their way to Rio Minor Closed Qualifiers. That wasn’t enough for them though, so they swapped primary AWP in the hands of their entry fragger Nikita “derkeps” Sirmitev. Petteri “peku” Jaakkola had been leading and AWPing at the same time, and the change was definitely for the better. They won the Elisa Viihde Spring Challenge to claim their spot in the Elisa Invitational and now they have a chance to show the strength of their new roles against international teams.

Nordavind

NationalityAgePlayer
Norway24Jorgen cromen Robertsen
Denmark23Niels-Christian NaToSaphiX Sillassen
Estonia23Kevin HS Tarn
Denmark25Jesper TENZKI Plougmann
Norway23Haris H4RR3 Hadzic
Denmark32Dennis Rytter Rytter (coach)

Niels-Christian “NaToSaphiX” Sillassen took leading duties while Ruben “RUBINO” Villarroel is recovering from hand surgery. Haris “H4RR3” Hadžić has been standing in for nearly two months. During this time, Nordavind has attended multiple online tournaments, but success has yet to come. They might not be in perfect shape waiting for RUBINO, but they can definitely do damage in their group.

Schedule

Group B is kicked off by KOVA and Nordavind on Friday 1st of May, 13:00 EEST. See the full tournament schedule on Brackets.

EESTTeam 1Team 2
13:00KOVANordavind
14:30NorthHeroic
16:00HeroicNordavind
17:30NorthKOVA
19:00NorthNordavind
20:30HeroicKOVA