Party Astronauts have a Mythical celebration after qualifying for ECS Season 7 Challenger Cup
The second ECS Season 7 Challenger Cup qualifier has concluded, with Party Astronauts and Mythic working their way past their opponents to join MASSIVEimpact and Zone on the team list for the upcoming Cup.
In typical North American fashion, the quarterfinal matchups began with two teams opting to forfeit — Disciples of zecK and Neutralize. The two matches that did play out saw little competition, with Party Astronauts making short work of SODMG with a crushing 16-0 win on Overpass before cruising through Mirage 16-6 and The Fundamentals easing past Farmers with 16-7 and 16-8 wins on Dust2 and Inferno.
Party AstronautsSODMG| Party Astronauts |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Josh 'PwnAlone' Pigue |
43 - 14 | +29 | 103.1 | 86.8% | 1.89 |
| Nick 'zeptic' Kaoud |
34 - 20 | +14 | 83.0 | 92.1% | 1.52 |
| Brenden 'stellar' McGrath |
33 - 20 | +13 | 92.3 | 78.9% | 1.51 |
| Casey 'SideStep' Hartzler |
32 - 21 | +11 | 91.7 | 81.6% | 1.44 |
| Ben 'ben1337' Smith |
26 - 23 | +3 | 77.7 | 86.8% | 1.24 |
| SODMG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carson 'nosraC' O'Reilly |
28 - 33 | -5 | 74.9 | 65.8% | 0.84 |
| Noah 'insane' Eheart |
18 - 31 | -13 | 59.3 | 57.9% | 0.70 |
| Nick 'peanut' Himber |
18 - 33 | -15 | 55.3 | 47.4% | 0.56 |
| Ryan 'wrsrule' Hatcher |
19 - 36 | -17 | 68.0 | 52.6% | 0.55 |
| Eric 'ERIC' W. |
15 - 35 | -20 | 47.7 | 47.4% | 0.44 |
The FundamentalsFarmers| The Fundamentals |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nolan 'Temperature' Pepper |
49 - 19 | +30 | 89.3 | 78.7% | 1.62 |
| Jake 'Decko' Muse |
42 - 28 | +14 | 98.6 | 80.9% | 1.48 |
| Ramal 'Rampage' Silva |
40 - 31 | +9 | 96.0 | 63.8% | 1.34 |
| Michael 'orbit' Faulkner |
27 - 32 | -5 | 80.7 | 83.0% | 1.16 |
 Cameron 'Skelly' Thomson |
24 - 19 | +5 | 56.8 | 85.1% | 1.07 |
| Farmers |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jake 'Dolzy' Amendola |
38 - 35 | +3 | 85.9 | 68.1% | 1.09 |
| Abdo 'c4Lypso' Agha |
29 - 39 | -10 | 72.7 | 55.3% | 0.80 |
| Timothy 'Timmy' Bristow |
25 - 36 | -11 | 62.2 | 61.7% | 0.77 |
| Mario 'MARIO' Wakim |
21 - 36 | -15 | 66.6 | 57.4% | 0.71 |
| Elvis 'tomford' Cavalic |
15 - 37 | -22 | 44.4 | 46.8% | 0.44 |
As both Mythic and Lowkey advanced to the semifinals through forfeit victories, their semifinal matchup was both the first to begin and the first to conclude, with Mythic edging out a 2-1 series win (1-16 Mirage, 16-5 Dust2, 16-13 Overpass).
Lowkey's pick of Mirage began with the ESEA Advanced side taking the first three rounds, with Mythic managing to get themselves on the board for a 3-1 scoreline. From there, the map belonged to Lowkey as Chris "riku" Piasecki helped to power his team to a 13 round streak, taking a 16-1 map win and ending Mirage with a 2.19 rating while averaging 130 damage per round.
Despite Lowkey getting a similar start on the second map with a 4-0 start, Mythic were quick to reply on their own map pick of Dust2, taking the remaining rounds in the first half for an 11-4 lead. Another trio of rounds went the way of the stream team in the second half, with Lowkey managing to put one additional round on the board before Mythic took the series to a third map with a 16-5 victory.
The deciding map of Overpass saw a far more competitive back-and-forth first half, with the two teams trading three rounds apiece for the first nine rounds of the map. Trailing 3-6, Lowkey managed to stabilize towards the latter portion of their T side, grabbing five of the remaining six rounds to narrowly edge out the lead 8-7 as they swapped sides.
That lead was extended to 10-7 as Lowkey won the pistol round in the second half, but once Mythic got rifles in their hands Lowkey had trouble keeping their money in check. Repeated economic resets allowed for Mythic to steal away the lead, taking two or three rounds for each single round that Lowkey managed to put on the board. Lowkey's fate was sealed near the end of the map as Erik "fl0m" Flom and company dealt the Advanced team one final reset at 14-13, winning two final rounds to close out the map 16-13 and take the series 2-1.
MythicLowkey| Mythic |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Erik 'fl0m' Flom |
48 - 45 | +3 | 78.5 | 71.6% | 1.12 |
| Leonardo 'Laski' Arroyo |
49 - 49 | +0 | 82.5 | 80.6% | 1.11 |
| Todd 'anger' Williams |
53 - 52 | +1 | 84.7 | 73.1% | 1.11 |
| James 'hazed' Cobb |
46 - 49 | -3 | 72.4 | 70.1% | 1.03 |
| Adam 'Polen' Polen |
40 - 43 | -3 | 63.5 | 70.1% | 0.99 |
| Lowkey |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Robert 'robby' Brown |
63 - 42 | +21 | 85.9 | 82.1% | 1.33 |
| Chris 'riku' Piasecki |
52 - 48 | +4 | 92.7 | 74.6% | 1.32 |
| Dennison 'fdeN' Fong |
50 - 46 | +4 | 78.1 | 68.7% | 1.03 |
| Bradley 'mickey' Waddington |
39 - 51 | -12 | 73.0 | 79.1% | 1.01 |
| Lucas 'Fiziq' Blow |
33 - 49 | -16 | 54.8 | 56.7% | 0.79 |
Party Astronauts had a somewhat easier time of things in their match against The Fundamentals, making a flawless run through the qualifier by picking up another 2-0 series victory (16-8 Cache, 19-16 Overpass).
The Fundamentals began their own map pick of Cache with a 2-0 lead, but were quickly put on the back foot as Ben "ben1337" Smith helped his team regain the lead with a four-round streak. The Fundamentals managed to even the score with another set of rounds, but once again Party Astronauts pulled ahead with four rounds of their own for an 8-4 lead. The Fundamentals rounded out the half by winning the final trio of rounds, trailing 7-8 as they swapped to their own T side.
Casey "SideStep" Hartzler stepped up for Party Astronauts in the second half, helping to win the first two rounds before picking up an ace in the fourth to reset The Fundamentals, allowing for his team to cruise through the remainder of the map for a 16-8 win.
The Fundamentals managed to flip the script in the first half of Overpass, with Ramal "Rampage" Silva helping his side to a 3-0 start. Although Party Astronauts managed to win four of the ensuing five rounds, Nolan "Temperature" Pepper managed to crush the offense of Party Astronauts for the remainder of the half, dropping 24 frags in the first 15 rounds alone to help his team to an 11-4 half lead.
Party Astronauts narrowed that deficit with four round wins off the back of a second half pistol round victory, but were quickly left with little room to work with as The Fundamentals took a trio of rounds to sit at a 14-8 lead. Josh "PwnAlone" Pigue was the one to rise up and take on Temperature, pushing past The Fundamentals by winning seven rounds straight to steal away match point. The Fundamentals managed to take the final round of the half to force overtime, but managed just a single round before Party Astronauts danced their way to a 19-16 map win.
Party AstronautsThe Fundamentals| Party Astronauts |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nick 'zeptic' Kaoud |
45 - 41 | +4 | 83.5 | 72.9% | 1.23 |
| Josh 'PwnAlone' Pigue |
47 - 39 | +8 | 83.4 | 78.0% | 1.21 |
| Casey 'SideStep' Hartzler |
48 - 34 | +14 | 76.6 | 72.9% | 1.21 |
| Ben 'ben1337' Smith |
38 - 44 | -6 | 73.7 | 71.2% | 1.02 |
| Brenden 'stellar' McGrath |
31 - 33 | -2 | 62.9 | 71.2% | 0.99 |
| The Fundamentals |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nolan 'Temperature' Pepper |
48 - 39 | +9 | 86.8 | 69.5% | 1.17 |
| Ramal 'Rampage' Silva |
50 - 45 | +5 | 85.5 | 69.5% | 1.11 |
| Jake 'Decko' Muse |
35 - 39 | -4 | 68.3 | 62.7% | 0.96 |
| Michael 'orbit' Faulkner |
38 - 47 | -9 | 75.4 | 57.6% | 0.85 |
| Cameron 'Skelly' Thomson |
20 - 40 | -20 | 45.5 | 74.6% | 0.70 |
Two qualifiers remain to hand out four slots in the ECS Season 7 Challenger Cup, with eight teams receiving direct invites to the competition. As always, links and dates for upcoming qualifiers can be found on the Dust2.us Calendar.
