ECL Playoffs begin

Playoffs are back in action tonight as ESL Challenger League S42 enters the newest stage of competition. Eight of the best North American ECL teams are facing off in a best-of-three, double elimination bracket with $50,000 and a shot at ESL Pro League S17 Conference on the line. Last season saw Brazilian heavyweights paiN take down ATK to win it all.

While paiN are not going to be in this season's edition of playoffs after absconding to Brazil in preparation of the Major, ATK will once again be in the fight as they hope to get another European adventure. Other favorites featured this season are MIBR, Evil Geniuses Black, oNe, and Nouns, while community favorites Mythic led by Erik "fl0m" Flom are forced to watch from the sidelines despite participating in last season's playoffs.

The overwhelming front-runners to take the title this year will be MIBR, oNe, and ATK who all finished with near-perfect records, with oNe and ATK only dropping matches against MIBR and BHOP, respectively. The dark horse to make a statement during playoffs this season would have to be Vendetta, the phoenix team rising out of the ashes of Bad News Bears. Saad "Pluto" Siraj and Khizar "Momo" Rehman elected to retain the ECL slot after Alan "Shakezullah" Hardeman decided to step away from the game after frustration and failures along the way, and their efforts have paid off with a chance to reach the EPL Conference.

Vendetta has surprised several squads throughout the season, with their 6-1 record featuring 2-0 upsets against Nouns and Iron Blood while their only loss was to Group B winners ATK. Pluto and Kevin "consti" Yi have proven to be the driving forces behind the team's good form with the former posting a 1.20 rating across 18 maps with a 1.08 K/D ratio while the latter has posted a 1.09 rating with a 1.19 K/D ratio. Both players will need to continue this form as they face off against EG Black later tonight.

Speaking of EG Black, they will hope that Jerric "wiz" Jiang takes his otherworldly form from the regular season into the playoffs, as he was the highest-performing player with a 1.36 rating across 15 maps, along with a 1.55 K/D ratio, 87.1 DPR, and 0.86 KPR. wiz is supported by his teammate Connor "chop" Sullivan who showed up with a 1.18 rating, 1.15 K/D ratio, 77.8 DPR, and 0.70 KRP. Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz will need to rely on his young stars to propel them to success here tonight.

Action kicks off tonight at 08:00PM with must-watch matches of EG Black vs Vendetta, oNe vs Nouns, and MIBR vs Iron Blood. Full schedule for the bracket is available here.

MIBR vs Iron Blood at 08:00PM
EG Black vs Vendetta at 08:00PM
oNe vs Nouns at 08:00PM
Brazen vs ATK at 08:00PM