Bad News Bears and Party Astronauts headline first ESL Challenger Anaheim 2022 Open Qualifier
Day one of the first ESL Challenger Anaheim 2022 Open Qualifier has wrapped up, seeing domestic favorites Bad News Bears and Party Astronauts cruise into day two while the rest of the top eight is rounded out by a number of Premier teams.
The first two rounds of the open qualifier played out largely as expected, with the Advanced and Premier squads in the qualifier making quick work of their opposition. The only team of note to go out at this stage was the Turkish YeniCherry squad, who were eliminated in a 16-9 loss to Coldest Riders.
Moving into round three, Bad News Bears kicked things off with a 16-7 win against Soham "valens" Chowdhury's PNEUMA mixteam on Nuke while Party Astronauts claimed an identical 16-7 win over Main squad Last Picks on the same map. The next series of note saw ONET4P take down ATK 16-11 on Vertigo in Blake "Elk" Swinson and Marshall "Minus" Sedowicz's debuts for their respective teams.
Elsewhere in the bracket, Strife claimed a surprisingly close 19-16 win over Levitate on Nuke, Detonate pulled off a 16-13 upset against Triumph on Nuke, and oNe crushed Chinese squad Deman 16-8 on Mirage.
The final two maps of day one went the way of Eros as they bested Coldest Riders 16-13 on Vertigo and Springroll crushed Northern Forces 16-6 on Mirage while fielding McKinley "Cyrix" Hollison in his debut with the team.
Day two is currently underway with the following matchups:
 Bad News Bears |
vs. | ONET4P |
| Strife |
vs. | Detonate |
 oNe |
vs. | Eros |
| Springroll |
vs. | Party Astronauts |
One of these eight teams will advance to the Closed Qualifier where they will be joined by two invited teams and one squad from the second open qualifier.
