The VitalBet Balkan Pro League took place in Sofia, Bulgaria over the weekend where the four top qualifying teams from the online league played the finals out. Eventually, it was Serbia's iNation who came out on top taking the better part of the $5,000 prize. The LAN finals featured four teams from the region including Buğra "Calyx" Arkın's DarkPassage, Nexus from Romania, iNation from Serbia, and the home team Outlaws, who were to play a double elimination bracket starting on Saturday December 3 and ending on Sunday December 4.
The first round of matches saw the two favorites and eventual finalists DarkPassage and iNation win 2-0 in their openers vs Outlaws and Nexus respectively. The upper bracket final then had the Serbian-Bosnian side upset the Turkish side by taking the match in a 2-1 nail biter which ended in a third map overtime win on Train, 22-18. Nexus eliminated the Bulgarian team straight away in the lower bracket, 2-0, and were then in turn easily swept by DarkPassage who earned a rematch against iNation. This time around, DarkPassage's pick, Mirage, was played first. Nestor "LETN1" Tanić and company won it amply, 16-8, and then took their map, Dust2, 16-12, for a 2-0 win. iNation, which features the likes of Nemanja "huNter-" Kovač, Nikola "NiKo" Kovač's cousin, and Nemanja "nexa" Isaković, the 19-year-old rising star from Serbia, bagged the $2,500 first prize and bragging rights in the region. The stats from the grand final:VitalBet Balkan Pro League FinalsBest of 3  iNation Matchpage 2 0 4th December 2016   DarkPassage 16Mirage 8 16Dust2 12
Final standings:
 DarkPassage #51 Buğra 'Calyx' ArkınÖzgür 'woxic' EkerUfuk 'SasuKe' GöktaşMuhammed 'mini' SalmanBora 'Maiko' Igci  Nemanja 'nexa' Isaković  Age: 19 Team: iNation Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 76 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.66   Nexus #158 Cătălin-Ionuț 'BTN' StănescuRoberto 'r1d3r' PatruCosmin-Mihai 'cosmeeeN' ButucAdrian 'XELLOW' GuțăCristian 'sXe' Niță  Nemanja 'huNter-' Kovač  Age: 20 Team: iNation Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 97 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.71 iNation #56 Luka 'emi' VukovićĐorđe 'DJOXiC' NiciforovićNemanja 'huNter-' KovačNestor 'LETN1' TanićNemanja 'nexa' Isaković Nestor 'LETN1' Tanić  Age: 24 Team: iNation Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 186 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.66   Outlaws #117 Preslav 'acl' PavlovIvan 'Rock1nG' StratievPetar 'Partodis' CholakovTeodor 'SPELLAN' NikolovTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov  Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač  Age: 19 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 1.17 Maps played: 484 KPR: 0.82 DPR: 0.70 Buğra 'Calyx' Arkın  Age: 18 Team: DarkPassage Rating 1.0: 1.22 Maps played: 159 KPR: 0.83 DPR: 0.63 |
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