First Argentinian team in to play in NA since 2019

After besting Imperial 2-0 in the nail-bitingly close finals of the ESL Challenger Atlanta South American qualifier, BESTIA have earned a hard-fought spot in North America's last LAN event of 2023. Along with this, BESTIA have earned the notable honor of being the first Argentinian team to participate in an NA event in over four years.

Argentina as a nation in Counter-Strike, alongside Uruguay and Chile, have always been in the shadow of Brazil in the LATAM scene for the entirety of Counter-Strike's history. While Argentinians have been competing since the very beginning of the game, the disparity in accolades and opportunities has always been an immense gulf. Likewise, when it comes to North America, while Brazilian teams have been competing in North America and even lived in the region since the early years of CS:GO, Argentina has struggled to make such inroads.

In North America in particular, Argentinian teams only began to make inroads in mid-2017 when Miami Flamingos brought a squad to the region. However, it wasn't until Gale Force acquired the squad that Argentina attended its first NA LAN, DreamHack Open Montreal 2017. While the team would be eliminated in joint last place following losses to North and CLG, it was an important first step for Argentinian CS.

The next opportunity wouldn't come until 2019, which proved to be a pivotal year for the Argentinian scene. Due to ESL offering multiple South American qualifiers spots in ESL Pro League, Isurus were able to attend the American editions of ESL Pro League Seasons 9 and 10. Here, Argentina would pick up its first wins over the Colombians of Infinity in Season 9, and Rory "dephh" Jackson's Complexity.

Argentina's next opportunity would come shortly after at DreamHack Masters Dallas 2019, with Isurus topping the SA qualifier over W7M to head to Texas. Unfortunately once again, their run was cut short following losses to Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen's ENCE and the classic Renegades roster.

After this event, due to changes in the scene and the emergence of COVID-19, any opportunities for an Argentinian core to compete in North America were cut to short, outside of besting their Brazilian big brothers in various South American qualifiers over the next four years.

As such, BESTIA's win over Imperial on October 24th is special as it paves the way for Argentina to return to NA for the first time since 2019. While former MIBR player Ignacio "meyern" Meyer is likely the only name known to NA fans, BESTIA represent one of the best Argentinian squads in the game's history, with the team regularly taking the fight to Brazilian teams online and on LAN. As such, their story heading into ESL Challenger Atlanta is an exciting addition to the other storylines present at the event.

BESTIA's lineup is:

• Nicolás "Noktse" Dávila

• Marcos "deco" Amato

• Ignacio "meyern" Meyer

• Luciano "luchov" Herrera

• Tomas "tomaszin" Corna

• Rodrigo "pino" Manarino (Coach)

With BESTIA, ESL Challenger Atlanta's team list currently consists of:

ESL Challenger Atlanta will run from December 15th to 17th at the Georgia World Congress Center.