Advanced sides prevail in ECL Relegation
ESL Challenger League Season 43 Relegation recently saw the conclusion of two more matches, with Red Wolves and Snakes Den prevailing over their respective opponents of Victorum and Villainous, with both games being fiercely contested. Victorum and Villainous are now set to duke it out for the final available ECL spot.
The match between Red Wolves and Victorum was particularly close, as the series went all three maps, two of which went all thirty rounds before either side prevailed. The series began on Red Wolves' pick of Inferno, where Victorum narrowly claimed an 8-7 lead at the half on the defense. Victorum came out swinging on the offense, locking down seven of the first nine rounds to secure match point at 15-9. Red Wolves fought hard to stay alive, but Victorum shut them down at 16-13 to steal away their pick.
Red Wolves were undeterred by this unfortunate loss as the series headed to Victorum's pick of Nuke, as the Wolves sprinted ahead early on with an 8-2 lead on the CT-side. Despite the impressive start, the Wolves were unable to maintain their strong lead, as Victorum whittled the score down to 8-7 by half-time. The early portion of the second half was scrappy, with both sides trading rounds before Victorum eventually came out on top, securing the lead for the first time on Nuke with an 11-10 scoreline. The two squads each posted streaks of rounds, with the Red Wolves narrowly claiming the map victory 16-14 after winning the last three rounds in a row.
Despite the close loss on Nuke, Victorum looked formidable to start on Ancient, as the ECL side racked up a 10-5 lead on the defense. Victorum bolstered this lead with a second pistol round victory, giving the team a comfortable 12-5 scoreline to work with on the T-side. Unfortunately for Victorum, Red Wolves were determined to secure their place in ECL, as Kameron "K4mr0" Bouma powered his team's comeback with an impressive 1.53 rating, racking up 115.6 ADR. Thank's to K4mr0's performance, Red Wolves clawed their way back into the match, securing the map 16-14 to send Victorum packing while securing their ECL debut.
Red WolvesVictorum| Red Wolves |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 John 'Fatality' Owens |
68 - 57 | +11 | 77.3 | 73.0% | 1.12 |
| Xavier 'Locke' Barth |
66 - 58 | +8 | 70.3 | 73.0% | 1.05 |
| Kameron 'K4mr0' Bouma |
56 - 64 | -8 | 77.7 | 60.7% | 1.00 |
| Kevin 'Shawta' Le |
51 - 65 | -14 | 72.3 | 71.9% | 0.99 |
| Sam 'sam' Donaldson |
51 - 67 | -16 | 65.6 | 56.2% | 0.80 |
| Victorum |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bradley 'Slugy' Kohler |
78 - 56 | +22 | 97.3 | 75.3% | 1.39 |
| Andrew 'Drew' Warkentin |
67 - 60 | +7 | 82.8 | 62.9% | 1.12 |
| Devin 'AtomiK' Ferrell |
58 - 57 | +1 | 67.0 | 66.3% | 1.02 |
| Isaac 'Izik' Zeigler |
60 - 61 | -1 | 72.1 | 70.8% | 1.00 |
| Max 'SolGoat' Wallace |
47 - 62 | -15 | 61.2 | 62.9% | 0.89 |
Snakes Den and Villainous' match proved to be a similarly close affair. Snakes Den's pick of Vertigo is where this series began, with Snakes Den taking an early 5-1 lead despite Villainous' victory in the first pistol round. Villainous soon consolidated their defense, shutting out Snakes Den for seven rounds in a row to claim the lead 7-5. The half finished with some traded rounds, seeing Villainious come out on top 8-7. Snakes Den snatched the second pistol round, as well as the following round, in order to move ahead 9-8. In the end, once guns were in the hands of Villainous there was little Snakes Den could do as Villainous secured eight of the next nine rounds to steal their pick 16-10.
Despite Villainous' dominant finish on the first map, Snakes Den kept their heads in the game on their opponent's pick of Dust2. After starting 0-3, Snakes Den rallied on their CT-side to claim a 9-6 lead. The beginning of the second half can only be described as a brawl, as neither squad was able to string together a streak for quite some time. In the end, Snakes Den came out on top in this affair, eventually stringing enough rounds together to secure match point 15-9. Villainous would not go quietly, racking up five rounds in an effort to force overtime, but Snakes Den would finally finish things off in the final round of regulation.
Villainous were unable to recover following this narrow loss on Dust2. The first half of the decider map of Inferno was firmly dominated by Snakes Den, as the trio of Mason "Pr0mise" Maher, Dylan "DJF" Ferreira, and Patrick "Pat_" White fueled Snakes Den's 12-3 T-side half. Villainous locked down some rounds in the second half, but there was little they could do to prevent Snakes Den from closing out the map and series with a 16-7 scoreline.
VillainousSnakes Den| Villainous |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Alvin 'Alvin' Bui |
72 - 46 | +26 | 85.0 | 78.5% | 1.34 |
| Kevin 'omniscient' Ma |
54 - 56 | -2 | 84.5 | 70.9% | 1.09 |
 Cory 'shutout' Frymark |
45 - 50 | -5 | 71.8 | 67.1% | 1.00 |
| Jake 'zebra' Davis |
51 - 59 | -8 | 67.3 | 73.4% | 0.97 |
| Matthew 'tatm' Munro |
45 - 62 | -17 | 65.2 | 67.1% | 0.86 |
| Snakes Den |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patrick 'Pat_' White |
58 - 51 | +7 | 86.9 | 70.9% | 1.18 |
| Mason 'Pr0mise' Maher |
55 - 51 | +4 | 71.6 | 75.9% | 1.15 |
| Dylan 'DJF' Ferreira |
64 - 56 | +8 | 79.4 | 73.4% | 1.14 |
 Daniel 'Reason' Martinez |
53 - 59 | -6 | 74.7 | 69.6% | 1.02 |
| Charles 'ChwE' Whitehead |
43 - 52 | -9 | 62.2 | 67.1% | 0.91 |
The final standings for ECL Season 42 Relegation are:
1-2. BHOP - ECL Season 43
1-2. Mythic - ECL Season 43
3-4. Snakes Den - ECL Season 43
3-4. Red Wolves - ECL Season 43
5-6. Victorum - TBD
5-6. Villainous - TBD
7-8. X13 - ESEA Advanced Season 43
7-8. Unjustified - ESEA Advanced Season 43
Snakes Den and Red Wolves will not have much time to acclimate themselves to their new environment, as ECL Season 43 is set to begin in a matter of days, on October 25th. Meanwhile, Victorum and Villainous will be facing off for the final available ECL spot tonight at 08:00PM.
