Imperial to participate at ESL Challenger Melbourne
ESL have announced that Imperial will be paying a visit to Australia to compete in ESL Challenger Melbourne, with the $100,000 event scheduled to run from September 2nd-4th.
Imperial are the seventh team to be invited to the fall event with the Brazilians receiving a ticket to the tournament based on their placing in the ESL World Rankings, where they currently sit at 18th.
The Brazilian squad's time together has been mostly mixed, with an impressive 9th-11th place showing at the PGL Antwerp Major back in May giving way to less than ideal placements later on. This notably saw Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo's boys finish dead last at both IEM Dallas and the Roobet Cup, followed by a disappointing 9th-12th place finish in the IEM Cologne Play-in after losses to Outsiders and 00 Nation.
ESL Challenger Melbourne may also end up being Imperial's first tournament with a fresh face on the lineup as, according to Lucas Spricigo of Draft5.gg, and Dust2 Brasil, the lineup are in talks to replace Lincoln "fnx" Lau, with MIBR's Marcelo "chelo" Cespedes currently being Imperial's primary target.
Imperial also join EG.PA as the two representatives from the Americas region, with the latter making their way through the North America closed qualifier to book their place in the event.
The current team list for ESL Challenger Melbourne is:
ORDER (ESL World Ranking)
EG.PA (North American closed qualifier)
Entropiq (European closed qualifier)
Imperial (ESL World Ranking)
VERTEX (Oceanian closed qualifier)
Wings Up (Asian closed qualifier)
OG (ESL World Ranking)
TBA (ESL World Ranking)
The above teams have just over a month to get ready for the event down under, with ESL Challenger Melbourne set to get underway on September 2nd. The winning team will not only take home the lion's share of the $100,000 prizepool but also a spot in ESL Pro League Season 17 Conference.
