Nemesis beat MINLATE to be crowned EPIC.LAN 46 champions
Nemesis have been crowned champions of the last iteration of EPIC.LAN for 2025. British IGL Thomas “Thomas” Utting is no stranger to winning EPIC.LAN titles, having won it three times before, similarly, Dutch sniper Joey “CRUC1AL” Steusel has now got four titles to his name with this win.
Nemesis took the long way round to get to the grand final, where they set up a rematch versus MINLATE. Meeting first in the upper bracket semi-finals, MINLATE would be victorious the first time around, sending Nemesis down to the lower bracket. Nemesis then went flawless in the lower bracket to reach the grand finals, where MINLATE were waiting.
n0te and Nexius win their first event with Nemesis
Despite winning every match in the lower bracket, it wasn’t a quick affair. Finishing Saturday night at almost midnight, and the 9 AM game this morning. The last game of Saturday against Phantom was a barn burner too, a three-map affair where they came back from being 4-10 down on map two – fortunately for Nemesis, the last map was a quick one to allow them at least some rest. They then played Prestige in the Consolidation Final, where Nemesis swept them aside with a 2-0 win. Also mounting a gargantuan comeback on map from 3-10 down to win it out in double OT.
The first map of the Grand Finals would see Nemesis run away with Overpass. MINLATE couldn’t get the ball rolling on the CT side of Nemesis’ map pick, allowing Nemesis to pick up 10 rounds 12 on their T side. Thomas and Co. would swiftly close out the second half with a 13-5 victory to go one up in the grand finals
Map two would see MINLATE put up a much better fight despite an early deficit. Getting to start on the CT side of Nuke would allow Nemesis to keep the momentum going on the famously CT-sided map. MINLATE wouldn’t give up even though they were 4-8 down at the half and would even have a map point as they crawled their way to a 12-11 scoreline with AWPer Jan “POLO” Polak stepping up on the defence. Unfortunately, they couldn’t close it out in regulation and Nemesis forced it to overtime.
Only one set of OT rounds would be needed to separate these two teams. MINLATE carried their strength on briefly in OT, winning the first two before Nemesis would go on to win the next four on the bounce to close out the map and series. This was only facilitated because Thomas pulled off potentially the clip of his career at 13-14 with a lightning fast 1v4.
A gruelling couple of days for Nemesis, playing as many matches as there possibly can be at EPIC.LAN was ultimately worth it as they took home the title, the most prize money and plenty of LAN wins to bolster their VRS ranking. They currently sit 103rd in the world because of it, but MINLATE also still benefited as they regained their VRS rank and are now 136th in the world.
UKCSGO has selected Roman “n0te” Hamze to be the MVP for the event. Rocking a strong 1.18 rating across the HLTV matches, as well as a dominant 1.33 in the finals, his impact across all the important matches remained consistent and strong.
This event win marks not just the first LAN title for Nemesis but also their first LAN event together as this five. Nemesis have attended Birch Cup in Poland and Riga Open in Lativa as a core but EPIC.LAN marks the debut of the Belgian duo of n0te and Bram “Nexius” Campana. You can read about their recent roster move below.
Nemesis part ways with bevve and Frip to make space for Belgian duo
The post Nemesis beat MINLATE to be crowned EPIC.LAN 46 champions appeared first on UKCSGO.