Sprout beat Entropiq to qualify for ESL Pro League S16 Conference

The majority-German side are joined by Extra Salt on the team list for the event after they were awarded a forfeit win in the North American grand final of ESEA Premier.

Sprout qualified for ESL Pro League Season 16 Conference after winning ESEA Premier Season 39 Europe on Sunday, securing a one-sided victory over Entropiq in the league's best-of-five grand final to take home $20,000 and earn a shot at qualifying for Pro League via the Conference stage.

In North America, Extra Salt qualified for the Conference after they were awarded a forfeit win in the grand final. ChocoCheck were unable to field a complete lineup for the match, leaving us with an anticlimactic end to Josh "⁠oSee⁠" Ohm's time on the team before he reportedly departs for Liquid in 2022.

Spiidi topped the board in Sprout's Ancient win

Sprout began their playoff campaign with a win over Finest in the upper bracket quarter-final before going on to beat BLINK and GamerLegion en route to the grand final. Entropiq, meanwhile, recovered from an opening round loss to BLINK and survived a lower bracket gauntlet, beating Finest, 1WIN, BLINK in a rematch, and GamerLegion in the consolidation final.

The heroic run proved to not be enough in the end though as Sprout made full use of their one-map default advantage due to coming from the upper bracket to sweep the series 3-0, kicking things off with a dominant performance on Ancient. Timo "⁠Spiidi⁠" Richter and Josef "⁠faveN⁠" Baumann took the reins in a dominant CT side effort, leading 11-4, before closing out the map shortly into the second half for a 16-7 map win.

Entropiq put up a much better display on Vertigo, making up for a slow start (2-5) as they set the pace in the latter portion of the first half to head into the side swap ahead 9-6. Despite a pistol win for the Russian side, the tides of the match turned in Sprout's favor in the second half as they secured a force-buy to gain control, converting seven of the next eight rounds.

A last-ditch effort from Entropiq allowed them to tie up the score at 14-14, but it was Sprout who emerged the victors of the close battle at the end of the map to edge out a victory and sweep the series.

ESEA Premier Season 39 EuropeBest of 5 SproutMatchpage 3 0 19th December 2021 Entropiq 1Default 0 16Ancient 7 16Vertigo 14

Sprout	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Josef 'faveN' BaumannfaveN	52 - 32	+20	98.0	1.45
Timo 'Spiidi' RichterSpiidi	39 - 23	+16	87.3	1.36
Fritz 'slaxz-' Dietrichslaxz-	41 - 33	+8	73.1	1.17
Kamil 'KEi' PietkunKEi	39 - 35	+4	86.2	1.14
Rasmus 'raalz' Steensborgraalz	27 - 37	-10	59.1	0.89

Entropiq	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Aleksei 'El1an' GusevEl1an	38 - 35	+3	71.7	1.05
Vladislav 'Krad' KravchenkoKrad	40 - 43	-3	75.1	1.02
Igor 'Forester' BezotecheskiyForester	33 - 40	-7	87.3	1.01
Viktor 'Lack1' BoldyrevLack1	27 - 39	-12	49.3	0.84
Aleksei 'NickelBack' TrofimovNickelBack	20 - 41	-21	54.9	0.68

Josh 'oSee' Ohm Age: 22 Team: Extra Salt Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 1021 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.63 Extra Salt #22 Edgar 'MarKE' MaldonadoJohnny 'JT' TheodosiouRicky 'floppy' KemeryJosh 'oSee' OhmJustin 'FaNg' Coakley Josef 'faveN' Baumann Age: 21 Team: Sprout Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 1258 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.65 GamerLegion #31 Patrik 'Zero' ŽúdelAlfred 'RuStY' KarlssonMihai 'iM' IvanSean 'eraa' KnutssonIsak 'isak' Fahlén Sprout #29 Rasmus 'raalz' SteensborgTimo 'Spiidi' RichterJosef 'faveN' BaumannFritz 'slaxz-' DietrichKamil 'KEi' Pietkun BLINK #27 Rigon 'rigoN' GashiSener 'SENER1' MahmutiFlatron 'juanflatroo' HalimiDionis 'sinnopsyy' BudeciGenc 'gxx-' Kolgeci Entropiq #10 Aleksei 'NickelBack' TrofimovVladislav 'Krad' KravchenkoViktor 'Lack1' BoldyrevAleksei 'El1an' GusevIgor 'Forester' Bezotecheskiy ChocoCheck #70 Dominick 'JazzPimp' DimpfelZack 'XotiC' ElshaniCarson 'nosraC' O'ReillyAnthony 'CLASIA' KearneyJeorge 'Jeorge' Endicott Timo 'Spiidi' Richter Age: 26 Team: Sprout Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 1944 KPR: 0.65 DPR: 0.65 1WIN #40 Vadim 'Polt' TsyrovAleksandr 'TRAVIS' TimkivAleksandr 'glowiing' MatsievichDenis 'deko' ZhukovDanil 'ravenlot' Bikvaidze Finest #41 Robin 'robiin' SjögrenRasmus 'kreaz' JohanssonGuy 'anarkez' TrachtmanMartin 'mar' KuyumdjievKristjan 'shokz' Jakobson Liquid #12 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJake 'Stewie2K' YipMichael 'Grim' Wince