NRG through to Melbourne CQ Finals
The North American Closed Qualifier for ESL Challenger Melbourne kicked off last night with a late squad substitution as G3 took the place of Rocket, who were disqualified following Damian "EMIYA" Boulware's ban early yesterday.
NRG, Party Astronauts, G3, and Mythic duked it out to see who would earn the coveted spot for ESL Challenger Melbourne later this April.
Party Astronauts and NRG handled their opening round matches with clean 2-0 wins against G3 and Mythic, respectively.
With G3 and Mythic sent to the Lower Final, it took a close three maps for Mythic to stay alive in the competition after losing the opening map of the contest 13-10. The stream team rallied back on their pick of Ancient, taking the map 13-11 and almost letting an 8-4 first-half T-side slip away. Anubis was a much more comfortable affair for Mythic as they took a commanding 10-2 first half lead and closed out the decider 13-5.
G3Mythic| G3 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Bishrel 'N2o' Tamir |
51 - 44 | +7 | 93.4 | 67.7% | 1.23 |
 Qihao 'C4LLM3SU3' Su |
56 - 47 | +9 | 82.6 | 70.8% | 1.18 |
 Stanley 'calamity' Chiu |
36 - 49 | -13 | 73.2 | 66.2% | 0.90 |
| Ochirbileg 'obi' Shinebaatar |
41 - 47 | -6 | 65.7 | 66.2% | 0.86 |
| Maks 'laxiee' Andryei |
32 - 51 | -19 | 61.9 | 55.4% | 0.72 |
| Mythic |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ryan 'freakazoid' Abadir |
56 - 48 | +8 | 99.6 | 69.2% | 1.28 |
| Erik 'fl0m' Flom |
52 - 42 | +10 | 85.3 | 81.5% | 1.27 |
| Cooper 'Trucklover86' Phelps |
44 - 41 | +3 | 74.4 | 76.9% | 1.15 |
| Nicholas 'hate' Young |
42 - 38 | +4 | 68.8 | 73.8% | 1.09 |
| Austin 'Cooper' Abadir |
43 - 49 | -6 | 69.2 | 75.4% | 0.94 |
In the Upper Final, NRG was able to defeat Party Astronauts in a back-and-forth affair. NRG took the series advantage first as they cruised to a confident 13-8 victory on their pick of Inferno, helped by a 9-3 first-half T-side. The Astronauts got revenge on Anubis as they claimed a 13-8 victory, also thanks to a 8-4 first-half T-side. Finally, the two went towards Vertigo where overtime was needed to separate the two as NRG finally pulled through with a 16-13 win.
Party AstronautsNRG| Party Astronauts |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adam 'WolfY' Andersson |
65 - 45 | +20 | 91.9 | 81.7% | 1.38 |
| Colby 'Walco' Walsh |
43 - 50 | -7 | 63.1 | 69.0% | 0.88 |
| Connor 'chop' Sullivan |
36 - 50 | -14 | 53.9 | 76.1% | 0.83 |
| Danny 'cxzi' Strzelczyk |
40 - 58 | -18 | 74.8 | 60.6% | 0.79 |
| Ben 'ben1337' Smith |
31 - 49 | -18 | 55.9 | 62.0% | 0.77 |
| NRG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Justin 'FaNg' Coakley |
58 - 45 | +13 | 85.9 | 83.1% | 1.26 |
| Jadan 'HexT' Postma |
51 - 40 | +11 | 77.7 | 81.7% | 1.23 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
49 - 42 | +7 | 69.4 | 71.8% | 1.05 |
| Damian 'daps' Steele |
46 - 44 | +2 | 73.9 | 73.2% | 1.01 |
| Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte |
46 - 49 | -3 | 76.3 | 74.6% | 1.00 |
NRG now awaits the victor of Mythic v. Party Astronauts as they seek their first LAN appearance since coming back to the Counter-Strike scene. Party Astronauts and Mythic begin their match at05:30PM and the Grand Final is expected to start at 09:30PM.
