Year in review: HEROIC rise back to the top

We're coming to the end of 2024 now, so we thought it would be a good idea to turn back the clock and look back on the years of all the BLAST Premier teams.

Next up is HEROIC, a team that enjoyed an impressive rise back to the top of the Counter-Strike world despite needing to completely rebuild their team at the end of 2023 and facing visa issues throughout the year.

Let's take a look at how they went from 49th to 8th on HLTV's ranking.

The first season

HEROIC had a really rough time towards the end of 2023. Their incredibly successful Danish team imploded in on itself, and as they were left with just two players, they needed to completely rebuild.

In came nicoodoz, kyxsan, and NertZ, forming a team alongside TeSeS and sjuush that had far lower expectations than it's predecessor.

The season didn't get off to a good start, HEROIC were eliminated from BLAST Premier Spring Groups in last place after suffering losses against Cloud9 and BIG.

However, in their next event, the new team showed a lot of promise. Having entered IEM Katowice in the Play-in stage, they made the main stage with ease, taking down Astralis and BIG to make it to the main event.

In the group stage, HEROIC lost their opening game against G2, but answered that by getting a huge victory against Vitality to knock the then reigning Major champions out of the competition.

They then won again against GamerLegion, but ultimately fell just short of playoffs as they were once again defeated by G2.

Photo: Stephanie Lindgren

With the team now starting to show promise, they confirmed the faith in them as they advanced from the RMR for the PGL Major Copenhagen. However, the Major itself was a disappointment, after going 3-0 in the Opening Stage, HEROIC were knocked out of the Elimination Stage with a 1-3 record.

The Major was followed by narrowly missing out on the playoffs of IEM Chengdu, as well as a disastrous campaign at ESL Pro League Season 19, which forced the organisation into a roster move.

nicoodoz was benched, a result of the AWPer once again failing to make the step up to tier one, and in his place arrived degster. Although that wouldn't be as simple as it first sounds.

Their first event with degster, BetBoom Dacha Belgrade was a positive one, the team finished in the top four despite their limited time together. They then made the playoffs of their next event, IEM Dallas, albeit with nicoodoz as degster couldn't get a visa for the NA event.

However, despite the clear improvements, HEROIC couldn't secure playoffs in their final event of the season, narrowly missing out at YaLLa Compass.

Photo: Stephanie Lindgren

The second season

The second season started in frustrating fashion, HEROIC needed to play both BLAST Premier Fall Groups and IEM Cologne with their coach, sAw, acting as a stand-in for degster. The AWPer did eventually get his visa as Cologne was underway, but it came just too late to prevent HEROIC from being eliminated in the Play-in stage.

Once the team got into the swing of things with degster, it soon became clear why the team was willing to put up with the visa teething issues.

First, they made it deep into ESL Pro League Season 20, finishing in 9th-12th place. This was followed by a top four finish at IEM Rio, losing to eventual winners NAVI in the semi-finals after taking down G2, Astralis, and Vitality in the group stage.

Photo: Stephanie Lindgren

They followed that result up by even more positive tournament finishes, second place at both Elisa Masters Espoo and the Thunderpick World Championship.

Now a dark horse for the Major, HEROIC qualified from the Perfect World Shanghai Major RMR with a 3-1 record, beating PARIVISION, NIP, and Passion UA on their way to confirming a place at the main event.

At the Major itself, HEROIC qualified for the playoffs after picking up some big wins. They kicked off the competition with wins over BIG and FaZe, but losses to The MongolZ and Spirit meant they needed to eliminate the reigning Major champions, NAVI, to make it to the arena.

Set to face G2 in the playoffs, HEROIC's Counter-Strike year ended as a result of a 2-1 loss. A year of resurgence, very few would have expected HEROIC to be challenging at the top after losing their Danish roster, but they did so by building a team that can match every team in the world man for man.