ATK overcome MIBR to qualify for ESL Pro League
The second day of ESL Pro League Season 17's North American Conference has come to a close, with the first of two EPL slots up for grabs being secured by ATK after a tight series against MIBR. While ATK will be celebrating qualifying for their second international outing, MIBR will be licking their wounds and preparing for a rematch against Nouns for the final EPL spot available.
The series kicked off on MIBR's pick of Ancient, where the Brazilians got off to a flying start on their T-side, racking up ten of the first eleven rounds to claim a double-digit scoreline without even breaking a sweat. Although ATK managed to scrounge three rounds towards the end of the half, they still had to face an 11-4 scoreline heading into their T-side. After MIBR swept the first four rounds of the second half to take a 15-4 scoreline, it was only a matter of time before they quickly wrapped up the map 16-8.
Despite the unfortunate showing on Ancient, ATK looked considerably more engaged on their pick of Anubis. The first half was highly contentious, with neither squad able to put up a streak larger than three rounds, but MIBR narrowly came out on top with an 8-7 lead. MIBR topped this off with a pistol round win on the defense, but ATK rallied with six rounds straight to take a 13-9 lead. The two sides traded streaks of rounds for the remainder of the second half, with ATK ultimately converting on their lead to lock down their pick 16-14.
The decider of this contentious series was Inferno, where ATK looked even more confident than on their own pick, as the international side stormed ahead with a 13-2 lead on their T-side, as MIBR were unable to keep Gareth "MisteM" Ries from cracking open the sites with his stellar 1.89 T-side rating. MIBR started their own T-side with a pistol round win which netted them a few more rounds to boot, but with only three more rounds required from ATK there was little the Brazilians could do as the series was finished 16-6.
ATKMIBR| ATK |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Gareth 'MisteM' Ries |
52 - 47 | +5 | 75.6 | 73.7% | 1.16 |
 Michael 'Swisher' Schmid |
59 - 50 | +9 | 82.6 | 72.4% | 1.15 |
 Jonathan 'b0denmaster' Bodenmalm |
48 - 45 | +3 | 65.0 | 75.0% | 1.03 |
 Jonathan 'djay' Dallal |
45 - 54 | -9 | 66.6 | 69.7% | 0.87 |
| Ian 'motm' Hardy |
41 - 61 | -20 | 68.0 | 65.8% | 0.85 |
| MIBR |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Henrique 'HEN1' Teles |
69 - 36 | +33 | 95.6 | 81.6% | 1.56 |
| Matheus 'Tuurtle' Anhaia |
47 - 50 | -3 | 73.5 | 67.1% | 1.03 |
| Raphael 'exit' Lacerda |
44 - 46 | -2 | 72.1 | 76.3% | 1.01 |
| Breno 'brnz4n' Poletto |
52 - 59 | -7 | 72.2 | 68.4% | 0.98 |
| Felipe 'insani' Yuji |
42 - 54 | -12 | 62.4 | 63.2% | 0.81 |
MIBR will now be looking to beat Nouns once again in the North American Conference, with their lower bracket showdown set to begin at 09:00PM. On the other hand, ATK will be eagerly awaiting the recovery of Rhys "Fadey" Armstrong so the unit can be at full strength for ESL Pro League Season 17 in mid-February.
