Gaimin Gladiators top first ESL Challenger Melbourne qualifier
The first ESL Challenger Melbourne qualifier has concluded, seeing Gaimin Gladiators top a somewhat underwhelming field of teams due to the post-ECL rebuild/player break and IEM Cologne. Notably, they played with the enigmatic Zack "XotiC" Elshani in place of Dominick "JazzPimp" Dimpfel. Gaimin Gladiators join ATK and Ben "ben1337" Smith's Evil Geniuses lineup in the closed qualifier.
Overall, the qualifier went by without any notable upsets, with the round of 16 seeing Touch Point dispatched by Gaimin Gladiators and Mad Kings bested by oNe. In the quarterfinals, the only result of note was a modified Mythic lineup being felled by ONET4P 16-9 on Vertigo.
Moving into the semi-finals Gaimin Gladiators took down Logan "Voltage" Long's ONET4P 16-9 on Inferno while the new-look BHOP narrowly overcame oNe 19-16 on Inferno. In the finals, BHOP struck the first blow by winning Inferno 16-8 before David "cynic" Polster led Gaimin Gladiator's efforts to win Mirage 16-10 to tie the series up. With the series tied, Gaimin Gladiators clinched Overpass 16-10 to claim their spot in the closed qualifier.
Gaimin GladiatorsBHOP| Gaimin Gladiators |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 David 'cynic' Polster |
70 - 52 | +18 | 102.2 | 76.3% | 1.34 |
| Brendan 'Bwills' Williams |
48 - 50 | -2 | 74.9 | 75.0% | 1.04 |
| Carson 'nosraC' O'Reilly |
49 - 48 | +1 | 71.9 | 65.8% | 1.03 |
| Jeorge 'Jeorge' Endicott |
47 - 54 | -7 | 76.5 | 63.2% | 0.97 |
| Zack 'XotiC' Elshani |
46 - 50 | -4 | 58.1 | 63.2% | 0.94 |
| BHOP |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brett 'brett' Rhein |
61 - 58 | +3 | 85.6 | 64.5% | 1.11 |
 Brody 'BeaKie' Kelly |
51 - 49 | +2 | 78.0 | 69.7% | 1.08 |
| Danny 'cxzi' Strzelczyk |
51 - 52 | -1 | 64.0 | 71.1% | 0.99 |
| Austin 'AAustiN' Urb |
47 - 52 | -5 | 73.7 | 69.7% | 0.99 |
| Silas 'silas' Marrufo |
42 - 51 | -9 | 62.8 | 67.1% | 0.89 |
The current list of teams in the ESL Challenger Melbourne Closed Qualifier is:
ATK Gaimin Gladiators
Evil Geniuses (EG.PA)
Open Qualifier #2
The second ESL Challenger Melbourne qualifier is set to start today at 06:00PM. Currently the qualifier has a fairly lackluster turnout much like the first one, with BHOP and oNe being the top squads currently signed up.
