Two exit playoffs

The second day of ESL Challenger League Season 42 playoffs has come to a close, seeing Vendetta and Brazen bow out at the hands of Iron Blood and oNe + LOS, respectively. Meanwhile, in the upper bracket, MIBR moved past EG Black while Nouns edged out ATK in a brutal matchup.

Starting off with Vendetta's match against Iron Blood in the lower bracket, this series began on the latter squad's pick of Mirage. An early 4-1 lead for Vendetta was quickly cut down by Iron Blood who snatched a 9-6 T-side half. Once on the offense themselves, however, Vendetta posted six rounds straight to reclaim the lead. With Vendetta quickly approaching match point, Iron Blood rallied the last few rounds to lock down their pick 16-14.

Neither squad was able to put up a streak greater than three rounds in the first half of Vendetta's pick of Ancient, with Vendetta narrowly snatching an 8-7 lead at halftime. Iron Blood claimed the second pistol round as well as the following round, but Vendetta stormed away with the remainder of the half, only dropping one more round en route to a 16-10 win, taking the series to Overpass.

Iron Blood looked large and in charge with an early 5-0 lead, but Vendetta soon figured out their defense, shutting out Iron Blood to take a 9-6 half. A pistol-round win for Vendetta in the second half propelled the squad to double-digit rounds, but now it was Iron Blood's turn to dominate on the defense. Iron Blood went on to win ten of the next eleven rounds to claim the decider 16-12, keeping their ECL run alive at Vendetta's expense.

The other lower-bracket match saw oNe + LOS square off against Brazen. The latter squad's pick of Mirage was where this series kicked off, with Brazen taking an early 6-0 lead on the T-side. Despite the early deficit, oNe soon composed themselves to take the remaining nine rounds of the half. Now on the defense, Brazen returned to their winning ways, putting up another six-round streak to claim a 12-9 scoreline. The game then devolved into a back-and-forth slugfest, with Brazen narrowly coming out ahead 16-14 as the series headed into oNe + LOS' selection of Dust2.

Now on their pick, it was oNe + LOS' turn to dominate the game once again. The Brazilians took a commanding 10-1 lead on their T-side. Not looking to get completely blown out, Brazen snatched the final four rounds of the half to finish with only a five-round deficit. Brazen continued this momentum with a second-half pistol round win to cut oNe + LOS' lead to only two rounds. After this seven-round dry spell, oNe + LOS returned to their form from the first half, claiming all but one of the remaining rounds to take their pick 16-9.

oNe + LOS somehow managed to top their showing on Dust2 with an even more oppressive performance on the CT-side of the decider of Nuke, marching ahead to a 12-3 lead at the half. Brazen started to put the pieces together in the second half, but oNe + LOS' lead was simply too much at this point, as the Brazilians sent Brazen packing from playoffs with a 16-7 scoreline.

Heading to the upper bracket, without a doubt the match to watch was Nouns versus ATK, with Nouns' pick of Inferno being the series' first destination. The first half was a scrappy back-and-forth affair, with ATK narrowly taking an 8-7 lead heading into their T-side. A pistol round win for ATK in the second half allowed the international mix to strengthen their lead and crack double-digit rounds. Nouns were not content to roll over, tying up the scoreline at 13-13, but ATK pulled through in the final three rounds to steal Nouns' pick 16-13.

Despite losing their map pick, Nouns started off on the right foot on their opponent's pick of Overpass, building a 6-1 lead early on. This lead was quickly unraveled by ATK, who posted a streak of six rounds of their own to take the lead. In the end, Nouns pulled through in the final two rounds to take an 8-7 halftime lead. Although Nouns won the second pistol round, ATK were the ones to begin stringing together rounds, retaking the lead. The two sides began to trade streaks of rounds, with Nouns barely securing the map victory 16-14 after taking the last four rounds of the half.

Nouns maintained their momentum on the decider of Mirage, going on a 6-0 run on their T-side. This early lead was then whittled away by ATK's defense, although Nouns still managed to lead at the side switch 8-7. Now on the CT-side, Nouns put up a formidable defense early on to reach match point with a 15-9 scoreline. ATK began the slow crawl to overtime, but their efforts were shut down on the twenty-ninth round, as Nouns took the map 16-13, the first BO3 victory for the core over ATK since April of this year.

This brings us to the final match of the day, seeing MIBR tussle with EG Black. Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz's men carved out an early 5-2 lead on their pick of Inferno, but MIBR soon rallied to take the lead themselves. Ultimately, EG Black would be the victors of the first half, albeit with a close 8-7 score. The North American side claimed a comfortable five-round streak to kick off their CT-side, posting a 13-7 scoreline, arms reach of a map victory. Things rapidly fell apart for EG Black, however, as MIBR crawled their way to overtime. Having seen their comfortable lead in regulation thoroughly destroyed, EG Black were unable to contend as the Brazilians stole away their map pick in overtime 19-16.

Distraught from Inferno slipping out of their grasp, EG Black stood no chance on MIBR's selection of Vertigo. On the CT-side, stanislaw and co. managed to secure only a measly three rounds, as MIBR's offense proved to be overwhelming. The Brazilian side quickly wrapped things up in the second half to finish the map 16-6, sending EG Black to the lower bracket.

Today's matches are:

Upper Bracket
Nouns vs MIBR

Lower Bracket
Iron Blood vs ATK
oNe + LOS vs EG Black

These three all-important matches are all set to begin tonight at 08:00PM, with two squads set to be eliminated while the first finalist will be decided.