M80 defeat Wildcard to win ECL back-to-back
M80 once again proved they are the most dominant team in North America. Following their win over Wildcard last night, they can claim their second consecutive ESL Challenger League title.
The best-of-five victory comes amidst a wide range of competitions in North America this week, with M80 only finding success in league play while losing in the ACE North American Masters Fall 2024 Grand Final to NRG.
Heading into the final, M80 kept a map advantage over Wildcard thanks to their upper-bracket success meaning that Wildcard would need to overcome the odds if they wanted to claim the top prize for the league.
The series started out on M80's pick of Inferno where the German-American squad came out swinging with nine T-side rounds to take a massive lead heading into the second half. With Wildcard still reeling from the half, M80 simply cleaned up as they took a 2-0 series lead thanks to their 13-4 win.
Dust2 was a different story as Wildcard were the ones this time to get the massive lead. Leading 10-2 after a strong CT-side, Wildcard then struggled to find their way through M80's defenses as they allowed their opponent to close the gap to just two rounds towards the end. Wildcard were finally able to break through and secured their first map of the series 13-10 as they looked to reverse their fortunes.
Finally, the series went to Ancient where the two sides were simply inseparable throughout regulation. It was 6-6 halves both times before eventually the map headed into overtime. It hurt the most for young Josh "JBa" Barutt as his standout performance was not enough to help win the map in overtime as M80 secured the final map 16-13 to take home the league title.
M80Wildcard| M80 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Fritz 'slaxz-' Dietrich |
55 - 39 | +16 | 81.0 | 81.2% | 1.39 |
 Mario 'malbsMd' Samayoa |
63 - 50 | +13 | 89.8 | 76.8% | 1.37 |
| Elias 's1n' Stein |
45 - 43 | +2 | 77.5 | 72.5% | 1.13 |
 Ethan 'reck' Serrano |
38 - 47 | -9 | 68.1 | 76.8% | 0.97 |
| Michael 'Swisher' Schmid |
39 - 42 | -3 | 60.7 | 73.9% | 0.95 |
| Wildcard |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keller 'SLIGHT' Nilan |
45 - 40 | +5 | 68.9 | 72.5% | 1.06 |
| Josh 'JBa' Barutt |
47 - 47 | +0 | 73.0 | 65.2% | 1.00 |
 Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek |
45 - 52 | -7 | 77.6 | 71.0% | 1.00 |
 Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz |
41 - 49 | -8 | 71.9 | 71.0% | 0.95 |
| Adam 'Grizz' Golden |
41 - 53 | -12 | 62.7 | 60.9% | 0.80 |
Both sides have already secured their place in the next season of ESL Pro League which begins later this September.
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