With four wins from the six matches in the online preliminary round of this first showdown (all information on the new season structure can be found HERE), Leverkusen advanced to the offline knockout round. That was played in Leipzig.
wins against SChalke, St. Pauli and SCP en route to final
In the Round of 16, Bayer 04 finished eleventh in the preliminary round and faced FC Schalke 04 (sixth place). Marc 'MARC_LDW23' Landwehr started against the Royal Blues taking on Okan ‘OKANNN59’ but had to settle for 3-3 draw after leading 2-0. Sean 'SEAN_LDW07' Landwehr then secured progress to the next round with a 5-3 win against Ali Oskoui ‘PREDATORFIFA’ Rad.
The quarter-final was against FC St. Pauli. At the start of the match, Sean Landwehr won 4-3 against Ben ‘FCSP_BLAXE’ Ludwig, turning the game around after trailing 2-0. A 3-3 draw after extra time in the second game between Marc Landwehr and Berkay ‘BERKAYLION’ Demirci was enough for Bayer 04 to reach the semi-finals.
The #B04eSports team faced the 2023/24 double winners: SC Paderborn 07. The Leverkusen team had already played the East Westphalians in the online preliminary round and won the match. The Black and Reds also won this semi-final: Sean Landwehr beat Morris ‘MORRIS’ van den Pol 3-1 and that was followed by a 3-3 draw between Marc Landwehr and Yuval ‘YUVAL’ Blizovsky.
Final thriller against champions Leipzig
The next heavyweights awaited in the final: Top eSports team and current VBL CC champions RB Leipzig, who had entered the offline round unbeaten as the first-placed team. Marc Landwehr led the way and won 4-2 with an outstanding performance against Alihan ‘RBLZ_ALIHAN’ Hadzhi. With this two-goal lead behind him, Sean Landwehr went into the final duel with the current VBL individual champion Levy Finn ‘RBLZ_LEVYFINN’ Rieck - and he established a 4-1 lead. The Leipzig player drew level at 4-4, but the overall score of 8:6 was enough for the #B04eSports team - victory in the final was sealed!
"It feels incredibly good to have made it this time. The VBL-CC final last season kept us busy for a long time. This showdown win is our revenge for that," explained Sean Landwehr afterwards, referring to last term’s narrowly lost clash against Leipzig when Bayer 04 finished as club runners-up.
Marc Fiedler, Manager eSports at Bayer 04: "The lads have shown what we've been working towards for a long time. Offline, they are a real force and we’ll have a lot of fun with them in the upcoming showdowns. The victory is a strong signal that we are continuing exactly where we left off last season and that we still have big targets."
Results at a glance:
