NA ESL Challenger League Season 47 Preview

Welcome back to ESL Challenger League, renewed for its 47th season! Not sure what's going on or who to follow? Don't fear! Dust2.us has put together this lovely preview so you can quickly get up to date with all your favorite NA CS going-ons.

Returning Champs

M80 completely cruised to the finish last season, dropping a whopping zero maps in the playoffs. The boys are back, but, with no IGL as Marcus "maNkz" Kjeldsen continues to be on leave for mental health reasons. Will M80 keep their dominance or will someone snap up their top spot out from under them?

Nipping at the heels

Other names you'll hear around the NA CS scenes are ready to steal the top spot from M80. If they stumble, you'll quickly see BOSS, Nouns, and Wildcard ready to pounce,

BOSS have been on a storm as of late, going 3-1 in the North American RMR Closed Qualifier and taking second place in the last edition of NA ECL. Maybe this time they can cross the final hurdle.

Nouns have changed two players, bringing in Paytyn "junior" Johnson and Jeorge "Jeorge" Endicott to hopefully upgrade what has been a stagnating core. With Eric "adreN" Hoag bolstering the coaching staff, we may see a revitalized Nouns soon enough.

Wildcard have made incredible strides in recent months, taking down M80 in a BO3 to make the RMR with a clean 3-0 record. In recent weeks, that one victory has waned a tad, losing to Liquid, M80 and timbermen, but stanislaw and co. are clear forces to be reckoned with.

Mainstays and Returning Contenders

While we may have listed all the favorites, there are no shortages of upsets and surprises in NA ECL. As every season, we have ECL talent mainstays who return from the previous season, ready to take a shot at playoffs and show off their skill. Teams not yet named returning from Season 46 are: Party Astronauts, FLUFFY AIMERS, Carpe Diem (Evil Geniuses and Unjustified core), Mythic, timbermen, Take Flyte, Rocket, and Limitless (ex-Reason).

Party Astronauts are a name all NA CS fans are sure to recognize. Last season, they outperformed Nouns to finish in fourth place. However, things have been all but stellar in their camp. Losses to Badass (now timbermen) and MIGHT in open qualifiers kept them from qualifying to the IEM Chengdu Closed Qualifiers and dual losses to NRG eliminated them in 5-6th place in the qualifier for BLAST Showdown. Parting ways with PwnAlone must have been a heartache but now its time for the team to prove their worth with Adam "WolfY" Andersson.

FLUFFY AIMERS have consistently stayed in the top half of ECL taking a 7-7 record to the playoffs last season, defeating Take Flyte but losing to Unjustified immediately after. Two roster moves mean we'll see a reinvented FLUFFY AIMERS this season, hoping to strike above the .500 average they batted last time around.

From four teams at one point down to zero, Evil Geniuses are no more. But, in their stead, like a phoenix from the ashes, rises Carpe Diem, which people will remember as the name of Evil Geniuses Black before being picked up by the organization. Colby "Walco" Walsh and Jerric "wiz" Jiang remain from EG team while Sebastian "Seb" Dietrich and Mason "Lake" Sanderson come from the former Unjustified roster. A 2-3 record at the RMR Closed Qualifier shunted their hopes of going to Mexico, but the team can still seize the day and impress over this ECL season. Keep in mind that John "arcade" Rogel has only played with this team to hold onto the Unjustified ECL slot, so they haven't been playing with their complete yet-to-be-determined roster just yet.

What is there to say about our favorite stream team Mythic? No more Jacky "Stewie2K" Yip in the roster means we're back to the standard rotation of streamers, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't hop on a Ryan "freakazoid" Abadir stream and catch Mythic play against some of NA's finest.

timbermen are on an incredible run of form recently, finishing with a 3-2 record at the RMR Closed Qualifier under the name Badass, earning a trip to Monterrey, Mexico for a chance at stickers. In addition, the squad has surpassed all expectations by taking the Ace North American Masters to the house, earning a flight to Europe to compete in the online Showdown for BLAST Spring. This is a team to keep your eyes on as they continue to impress all around.

Another team with a couple of roster changes, Take Flyte are also trying to break out of their current situation. Ending last season 6-8, Take Flyte only barely made playoffs, and only enough to lose in the first series. This season will tell if the changes will be enough to dig deeper and launch further into playoffs.

Rocket ended the previous season on a sour note. Finishing 4-10, they were forced to fight for their lives in relegation and only barely made it through after close calls against Datejust and a loss to LAG. Luckily for them, Rocket is back and ready to take off. Rocket join the list of teams with two roster moves, hoping to find a configuration that clicks and can make a deep run into playoffs. Making the Americas RMR in Monterrey gives hope to the squad that perhaps this season will end up better than last.

Limitless, the core of the former Reason roster, are yet again another team with just three remaining members from last season. Limitless made it through Relegation fairly unscathed, reiterating why they deserve to be in the top tier of domestic competition. But, their two newest members, Nikolaos "PoseidoNN" Antoniou and Leon"DooM" Palmer, are debutantes to the ECL stage. Time will tell if they can power up this squad. They hope to improve upon their 2-12 record from last season.

Fresh faces... and fresh competition

Moving onto our final batch, we have teams moving up from Advanced (or invited to Relegation) to take a stab at ECL Challenger League. These teams have proved their worth against a lower tier of competition and now get the chance to make their names known. Wildcard are technically part of these teams, reaching #1 from Advanced S46, but have reached "nipping at the heels" status with their dominance over the past few months.

During ESL Challenger League Season 46, we had two Advanced seasons play out, giving One More, the winners of Advanced S47, a direct invite to ECL. Going through advanced playoffs without losing a single map, this team is certainly ECL talent. This group of five is looking to plunge their icepick into the icy precipice of ECL and hang on for dear life, hoping to evade relegation and potentially make their way into playoffs.

Three other teams have advanced out of the depths of relegation, LAG, NRG, and MIGHT. MIGHT, another advanced superteam, were always frontrunners to make it into ECL this season with players such as Jonathan "djay" Dallal and the legendary Noah "Nifty" Francis. However, the loss of veteran IGL Bobby "stamina" Eitrem certainly puts a stick in their wheels. We've yet to see the leader's replacement, but the nature of that fifth member may just be the deciding factor in the effectiveness of this team.

LAG, the lone European core in ECL, have only recently come upon the radar of top tier NA CS but they've done astoundingly well in qualifiers and have continued the victories in Advanced. Winning an incredibly late 5th place decider for the final ECL slot, they did only nearly manage to sneak in, but in they are. Time to see how much of that magic will play out against the best in the region.

Finally, NRG. Due to their immense stature and name recognition, NRG were invited directly to Relegation where they steamrolled the opposition, losing just 17 rounds in two BO3 victories. It's no question that the names on this team are astounding, but recent results have firmly left them out of "nipping at the heels" level. Recent losses to timbermen, Wildcard, and Rocket have put the strength of this team into question. We know they have the firepower, we just have to see it on the server.

Format and Prizepool

This season, teams will play a round robin BO2 in one single group. The top ten teams of the group stage out of 16 will move to playoffs. All placings are:

• 1st, 2nd advance to Upper Bracket Semifinals

• 3rd-6th advance to Upper Bracket Quarterfinals

• 7th-10th advance to Lower Bracket

• 11th-12th return for Season 48

• 13th-14th sent to Relegation

• 15th-16th demoted to Advanced

This season, the prize pool is slightly reduced, down to $80,000 from $100,000. The prizes are distributed as follows:

• 1st: $20,000 and an ESL Pro League Season 20 slot

• 2nd: $15,000 and an ESL Pro League Season 20 slot

• 3rd: $10,500

• 4th: $7,000

• 5th-6th: $4,250

• 7th-8th: $3,000

• 9th-10th: $2,000

• 11th: $1,600

• 12th: $1,200

• 13th: $800

• 14th: $400

The first BO2 matches begin tonight so make sure to tune in and root for your favorite teams and players!