BOSS qualify for ESL Pro League Season 19, set up ECL Grand Finals vs M80
Tonight, BOSS and Party Astronauts duked it out in the consolidation match of NA ESL Challenger League Season 46 for a slot in the grand finals and more. Not only does the winner play M80 in the grand finals, guaranteeing at least $20,000 in prize money, they also qualify for ESL Pro League Season 19, an incredible opportunity for either of the orgless teams to have a chance against European opposition in the Maltese tournament.
On map one, Party Astronaut's choice of Nuke, Danny "cxzi" Strzelczyk continued his stellar form from yesterday, where he posted a 2.55 rating against Nouns. Now, Nuke was not quite as good, but cxzi still cruised to the top of the leaderboard with a 2.01 rating over the map. The Partynauts took a majority of seven rounds in their T-half before BOSS answered back, though they did, closing out the score as close as they could. BOSS's T-side pistol and conversion went their way as well, tying up the score at 7-7. Then, for only the second and last momentum shift of the map, Party Astronauts won six in a row to close it out. It was close until it wasn't.
Coming into the second map after losing the first 7-13, you would think BOSS wouldn't have it in them to keep fighting against the Danwoo, but shut him down they did. BOSS' T-side was ferocious on Ancient, allowing only a single consecutive CT-round for the Partynauts and leaving the first half with a haul of eight. The Astronauts' T-side started on the right foot with the pistol round and conversion but BOSS immediately shut down any thoughts of a comeback with 5 CT-rounds in a row to finish off the map 13-6, even more dominantly than Nuke.
So, it all comes down to one map to decide who goes to Malta. BOSS were the first to strike on Vertigo, taking the pistol and the three following before PA could mount a rebuttal. But, BOSS showed that their regular season performance was not a fluke. They instantly took back the momentum and went on to win 10 rounds of the half. Party Astronauts were in dire straights with a necessary pistol round looming. They did not win the pistol round. BOSS won the first three of their CT-side to defeat Party Astronauts in a supremely dominant 13-3 affair, winning the whole series 2-1 and securing a spot at ESL Pro League Season 19.
BOSSParty Astronauts| BOSS |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Matthew 'Cryptic' Whitmore |
50 - 28 | +22 | 86.4 | 81.5% | 1.36 |
| Brett 'brett' Rhein |
44 - 40 | +4 | 88.5 | 74.1% | 1.25 |
| Matthew 'd4rty' Paplawskas |
37 - 31 | +6 | 73.2 | 83.3% | 1.22 |
 Adam 'freshie' Paterson |
36 - 31 | +5 | 68.3 | 77.8% | 1.08 |
| Adam 'WolfY' Andersson |
33 - 35 | -2 | 66.7 | 72.2% | 0.98 |
| Party Astronauts |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Danny 'cxzi' Strzelczyk |
49 - 44 | +5 | 109.8 | 81.5% | 1.45 |
| Josh 'PwnAlone' Pigue |
33 - 35 | -2 | 62.3 | 64.8% | 0.92 |
| Ben 'ben1337' Smith |
34 - 41 | -7 | 73.7 | 66.7% | 0.92 |
| Connor 'chop' Sullivan |
26 - 39 | -13 | 51.8 | 63.0% | 0.70 |
| Wesley 'viz' Harris |
22 - 41 | -19 | 47.6 | 66.7% | 0.67 |
The grand finals of ESL Challenger League Season 46 North America take place tomorrow, December 10th, with BOSS taking on M80 at 08:00PM.
