ESL Challenger Melbourne 2023 will begin on April 28 and conclude on April 30, with the entire event taking place during DreamHack Melbourne at Rod Laver Arena.
The eight rosters will compete for a US$100,000 prize pool and a $50,000 winners’ cheque, as well as a spot in ESL Pro League Season 18 in August.
World no.13 Complexity and no.22 IHC were both invited due to their ESL rankings, while Grayhound (#27) and Bad News Eagles (#29) will also be among the drawcards.
Rare Atom (#26), ECSTATIC (#60), EG Black (#63), and Vertex (#76) qualified through the North American, European, Asian, and Oceania closed qualifiers.
These eight teams will be enjoying a Chicken Parma come April 28 – 30 for #ESLChallenger Melbourne
@grayhoundgaming
@EvilGeniuses
@Complexity
@_badnewseagles
@ihc_esports
@rare_atom
@EcstaticCS
https://t.co/833J3FgywG pic.twitter.com/qSJkH69z98
— ESL Counter-Strike 2 (@ESLCS) April 3, 2023
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Junior, who spent seven inactive months at Complexity, will replace Jerric “wiz” Jiang on the academy lineup. Wiz was moved to the main Evil Genius roster earlier this year to fill in for Tsvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov.
After junior was benched by Complexity, H?kon “hallzerk” Fj?rli was brought in to take his place on the Counter-Strike roster after the team was eliminated from the IEM Cologne 2022. The Texas-based organization announced junior’s departure on February 20 via Twitter and wished him the best of luck in future endeavors.
Junior earned some recognition during the online era towards the end of 2020 and early 2021 when he played under Triumph’s banner. In that period, he emerged as one of the more attractive prospects in the North American CS:GO scene.
In January 2021, he was signed to the Brazilian squad FURIA; however, by June that year, he was taken off the active roster. At the time, there was an obvious communication issue between the player and his teammates, who primarily spoke Portuguese.
Junior joined Bad News Bears for a short loan stint before signing with Complexity at the start of 2022. There, he reunited with Michael “?Grim?” Wince, his ex-Triumph teammate.
Junior performed below expectations at Complexity and averaged a 0.98 rating across all competitions. A few months later, he was benched and hallzerk was brought in to take his place.
In his months away from active play, junior competed in several online cash cups with Gas Money and substituted for wiz in the 2023 fl0m cup. Despite his stats with FURIA, the 22-year-old reached a 1.21 rating while playing in the tournament, the highest among his teammates.
EG Black’s new active lineup consists of William “?RUSH?” Wierzba, Peter “?stanislaw?” Jarguz, Jeorge “?Jeorge?” Endicott, Colby “?Walco?” Walsh, and junior. Tommy “Axed” Ryan retains his position as coach.
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EG BLACK vs TEAMONE CS:GO BETTING & MATCH DETAILS |
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| Best Odds: | EG Black $2.65 at GG Bet | TeamOne $1.43 at GG Bet |
| When: | November 9, 2022 | 20:00 ET |
| Watch Live: | Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/esl_csgo) |
The first series of matchday four will be between EG Black and TeamOne, as both teams will be looking to get their season off on a positive note. These two teams played each other recently on October 21, with TeamOne taking the best-of-three series 2-0.
EG Black are currently ranked as the 85th best team in the world and they will come into this season of the ESL Challenger League on a two-game losing streak, after they finished 5th-6th in season 42 of the ESL Challenger League at the end of October. In the last week this team has dropped from 64th in the world to their current rank of 85th in the world, after their disappointing finish last season. This EG Black team has a lot of talent and CS:GO experience on its roster, so they shouldn��t be counted out of any series; however, they need to show something in these early games to garner some support.
TeamOne are ranked 41st in the world currently, after finishing fourth in season 42 of the ESL Challenger League, where they lost to ATK in the lower final 0-2. This TeamOne roster has made some changes in recent months and it is starting to pay dividends for the organisation, as they have put in some good showings at a whole range of events over the last two months. TeamOne added Mario ��malbsMd�� Samayoa back in August and since he has been in the team, he has been outstanding, averaging the best rating at 1.15 out of 2.
TeamOne have the wood over EG Black and they have the higher ranking. There is no reason to suggest that the 2-0 result could be overturned in a short amount of time, so we will be siding with TeamOne to repeat the dose here.
TeamOne -1.5 maps
RED WOLVES vs ATK CS:GO BETTING & MATCH DETAILS |
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| Best Odds: | Red Wolves $8.00 at GG Bet | ATK $1.05 at GG Bet |
| When: | November 9, 2022 | 20:00 ET |
| Watch Live: | Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/esl_csgo) |
The second match of the day will feature Red Wolves and ATK, who will face each other in the for the first time in an official competitive series.
Red Wolves are officially ranked 154th in the world and they will take their place in season 43 of the ESL Challenger League after finishing 3rd-4th in last season��s Challenger League Relegation, which in turn, promoted them into the Challenger League from ESEA Advanced. The Red Wolves come into their first series against ATK as massive outsiders, and given their ranking compared to their opponents, the odds are quite fair.
ATK are now ranked the 35th team in the world after winning season 42 of the ESL Challenger League, defeating Nouns 3-1 in the grand final. ATK is the obvious favourite for this season as they comfortably defeated every team they played in the playoffs last season, including 2-0 wins over MIBR, TeamOne and Iron Blood. ATK deserve to be heavy favourites in this series against a newly promoted team, and we expect to see ATK win this series quite comfortably.
ATK are too short to suggest a bet on the heavy favourites at the moneyline; however, we do suggest taking ATK at the rounds line in the first map, which will be their pick.