M80 sweep BOSS to win ECL Season 46 undefeated
Yesterday, BOSS and M80 dueled in the grand finals of North America ESL Challenger League Season 46 to determine to overall victor of the entire season. Despite the most important prize, a trip to Malta for ESL Pro League Season 19, already won by both teams, they still had a cash prize to fight over. $20,000 for the loser is a nice consolation prize, but both were teams gunning for the $35,000 reward.
Coming into the match, M80 held a one-map advantage by advancing through the upper bracket, which included defeating BOSS in the upper bracket final, perhaps some amateur-written foreshadowing. However, that matchup was fierce, with map one Anubis going the whole 24 and Overpass extending into overtime, both of which M80 prevailed in.
Starting this match off, M80 chose Vertigo, the team's home map, and at home, they looked. M80 took the pistol and conversion, with BOSS making the fight interesting in the first half, taking the lead at 3-2. M80's strung together five in a row to win the half, but BOSS kept it as close as possible coming into their own T-side. BOSS started with four in a row, taking the lead at 9-7 and looking to steal away M80's pick and even up the map-line, but unfortunately for the orgless squad, Ethan "reck" Serrano was a complete brick wall from then on out, leading by example with a 2.01 rating on the CT-side to win the map 13-9.
With their backs against the wall, the fight came to BOSS' pick of Anubis, which they very nearly won in the previous matchup. It did not start the way BOSS would have hoped. M80 quickly ran the board with four before BOSS could answer, and only with three of their own before M80 jumped back in the driver's seat racking up eight rounds to BOSS' three. BOSS took the last round, but this was still a worse margin than their last Anubis CT-side.
Lucky for BOSS, Adam "WolfY" Andersson put the team on his back with a 1.92 rated T-side to make the map competitive once more. At 5-11, BOSS strung seven rounds in a row to go to map point, with M80 clinching the final round in regulation and sending Anubis to overtime. It was a hard-fought affair but after two overtimes, M80 were the first to grab two CT-rounds, ending the map 19-16 and the series in flawless 3-0 fashion.
M80BOSS| M80 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Michael 'Swisher' Schmid |
42 - 34 | +8 | 86.9 | 78.9% | 1.31 |
| Ethan 'reck' Serrano |
49 - 38 | +11 | 88.0 | 70.2% | 1.28 |
 Marcus 'maNkz' Kjeldsen |
40 - 37 | +3 | 79.5 | 78.9% | 1.19 |
 Mario 'malbsMd' Samayoa |
44 - 40 | +4 | 80.6 | 75.4% | 1.14 |
 Fritz 'slaxz-' Dietrich |
37 - 33 | +4 | 65.1 | 70.2% | 1.01 |
| BOSS |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matthew 'd4rty' Paplawskas |
41 - 37 | +4 | 77.9 | 70.2% | 1.09 |
 Adam 'freshie' Paterson |
41 - 42 | -1 | 75.5 | 64.9% | 1.05 |
| Adam 'WolfY' Andersson |
44 - 41 | +3 | 70.8 | 64.9% | 1.01 |
| Matthew 'Cryptic' Whitmore |
32 - 43 | -11 | 61.1 | 64.9% | 0.80 |
| Brett 'brett' Rhein |
24 - 49 | -25 | 64.8 | 63.2% | 0.66 |
BOSS and M80 were the clear favorites up to this point in the tournament. M80 with a flawless 15-0 record in the regular season and BOSS with an incredible 13-2 record, butting heads in the upper finals, it was destined to meet in the grand finals. While BOSS do walk away defeated, they'll still take a flight to Malta in 2024 for ESL Pro League Season 19 and will be able to call themselves the only team able to take a map off M80 in ECL Season 46 North America.
That's it for this season, see you next year for Season 47!
