Losing two players just before the season starts? Check.
No team mates in the top 10 of individual players? Check.
Semifinalist and one of the favourites to win ESL Pro League Season 3? Check.
We don't know what MomCadiaN has been feeding cadiaN the last few years, but what he has done with Heroic is nothing short of a miracle.
At the end of February the team benched niko and b0RUP, and acqured sjuush and refrezh from MAD Lions. Neither of the latter had impressed in the last part of their stay with the Spaniards, and Heroic was largely an underdog coming into EPL S13.
Not so much anymore. With a flawless groupstage and a 2-0 victory against NiP, Heroic is now guaranteed a top 4 placement and will face Astralis or FURIA for a Grand Final spot on Saturday.
Speaking of Astralis, the Danes have lost 7 of their last 14 games, which on the flipside means that they have at least won 7. FURIA are similarly streaky. Wins against NaVi and G2 show glimpses of greatness, but the fact is that you never know which version of the Brazilians you get.
"Great and aggressive teamplay-FURIA or "7 rounds in total against Cloud9 on 2 maps"-FURIA? Flip a coin.
The other semifinalist is Gambit who Ax1Led Astralis 2-0. They'll face either NiP or Complexity on Saturday, and is probably the overall favourite to win the event.
The Swedes have managed to get a top 6 placement, despite ztr struggling to find his feet in T1 competition. The youngster fields a 0.84 rating, but he'll be glad to know that he's not the worst rated Swede at the event. At least Golden won something this season.
We can't dunk on Jason Lake's juggernaut, even if we wanted to (disclaimer: we'd never dunk on any team that are as swole as Complexity) - in their last three games they lost a close 3-mapper to Heroic and beat both NaVi and Virtus.Pro. That's tournament winning form if you ask us.
EPL Season 13 Finals schedule