Wildcard eliminated from ESL Challenger Atlanta CQ; EG in the grand final

The ESL Challenger Atlanta Closed Qualifier, which started yesterday, has already witnessed a Wildcard elimination and two wins from Evil Geniuses which secured them a grand final spot. As for Party Astronauts and M80, both teams ended day one with one loss and one win and will face each other (again) in order to determine the second finalist who will fight for the sole spot in Atlanta.

Despite the early Wildcard elimination, all series have been extremely close, even on matches that only featured two maps. Only two maps out of ten finished with a round difference of more than five rounds and six maps ended with a two-round difference (13-11, 16-14, or 19-17).

During the upper-bracket semifinal, Party Astronauts faced M80 in one of the tightest series of the whole qualifier, while Wildcard and EG also had a strong showing. PA and M80 started off on M80's pick of Vertigo (11-13), and PA tied the series on Nuke (16-14), before the Ancient decider ended with PA on top (19-17). Wildcard got reverse swept after winning their Overpass pick (13-8), only to lose EG on Mirage (9-13) and on the Inferno decider (11-13).

Shortly after, Wildcard faced M80 and this time couldn't win their Overpass pick (17-19), despite having been up 12-1 at the start of the second half, but M80 managed to secure the incredible comeback. After that, Wildcard were completely destroyed on M80's pick of Anubis (3-13). With two losses, Wildcard was eliminated from the closed qualifier. In the upper bracket final, Party Astronauts suffered a huge loss on EG's pick of Ancient (5-13) and almost came back on their pick of Nuke, but couldn't close the map (11-13).

Today at 03:30PM Party Astronauts will face M80 in the lower-bracket final in a series where the loser will be eliminated and the winner will face Evil Geniuses for the ESL Challenger Atlanta spot. The grand final is scheduled to start at 08:00PM.