EPL Conference Season 16: Encore and Vertex depart EPL winless; Order fall short to Endpoint

• Encore crash out in two to Order, HEET
• Vertex admirable in defeat against Falcons, Illuminar
• Order must win two more series to qualify

Season 16 of ESL Pro League begins in Sweden this week with the Conference — a chance for the challengers and future stars of the globe to prove their worth and qualify for the all-important EPL Group Stage.

It was strike one and two back-to-back for our OCE reps at EPL Conference Season 16, with both Encore and Vertex’s Pro League campaigns ended overnight in Sweden.

Encore’s 0-2 (11-16, 10-16) loss to HEET saw them crash out in two series following their opening day loss to Order.

Jared “HaZR” O’Bree (43-41, 1.06 rating) was the best of the Encore squad, who threatened a comeback on Nuke but ultimately couldn’t close the gap.

HEET’s pick of Ancient favoured Encore, who set out to surprise the French with a 10-5 CT half.

But it was there that Encore’s run would end; a 0-11 T half, which culminated in a dropped bomb in mid and a Alexandre “bodyy” Pianaro one-versus-three spelled the conclusion to Encore’s overseas stint.

“We are out of Pro League Conference — we couldn’t do anything on our T side on either map [versus HEET] which is rough,” summised James “SaVage” Savage following the loss.

“Even though it’s sad, it was an amazing experience here in Sweden and I hope we will be back here soon.”

Also out is Vertex, who fell to Polish squad Illuminar 0-2 (11-16, 7-16) in their eliminator.

“[They were] tough games for us here. It felt like we made a lot of progress in practice but none of that matters if we aren’t able to bring it on the day,” said Liam “malta” Schembri after the Wolfpack’s elimination.

Their international debut, Vertex took it to Illuminar on Mirage — the Aussies led 9-6 on their CT side and, at one point, were up 7-1 behind a Jordan “pz” White (37-37, 1.02 rating) leading effort.

Unfortunately Vertex became undone on the T side as Illuminar’s aggressive CT holds eventually made it impossible for the Wolfpack to recover.

Starting T side on map two Nuke would be tough from the outset, and at 3-3 Vertex dropped a crucial clutch that would set Illuminar on a 8-1 run to close out the half.

All Oceanic hopes now rest with Order, who play Portugese side FTW Gaming in their first eliminator. A win would keep them alive, with a chance at groups against the winner of Tyloo versus Illuminar to follow.

We’re covering everything EPL Conference Season 16: streams, schedule, results and more.

EPL Conference Season 16 Streams

Season 16 of the EPL Conference streams live to Twitch. Missed the action? Catch up via the EPL CS:GO Twitch channel, with full match VODs uploaded after the match concludes.

ESL CS:GO — Primary Stream

ESL CS:GO B — Secondary Stream

ESL CS:GO C — Tertiary Stream

EPL Conference Season 16 Schedule & Results

Sixteen teams will be whittled down to six via a full double-elimination bracket.

It’s simple: win two matches, and they’re through to the Group Stage, and a shot at the lion’s share of over $800,000 USD. Lose two, and they’re going home. All matches are best-of-three.

EPL Conference — Standings

EPL Conference — Day 3, Elimination & Qualifying (Saturday June 17)

EPL Conference — Day 4, Elimination & Qualifying (Sunday June 19)

EPL Conference — Day 1, Opening Matches (Thursday June 16)

EPL Conference — Day 2, Elimination & Qualifying (Friday June 17)

EPL Conference Season 16 Rosters