NRG and Party Astronauts top ESL Challenger Atlanta NA OQ
This weekend the NA Open Qualifier for ESL Challenger Atlanta was played out, with 55 teams signing to fight for a spot in the Closed Qualifier alongside Nouns and Wildcard. At the end of two days of play, NRG and Party Astronauts came out on top of the pile, besting LAG and Elevate, respectively, in the deciding series.
Alongside NRG and Party Astronauts, the ESL Challenger Atlanta NA Open Qualifier also featured the likes of LAG, Elevate, DETONATE, Take Flyte, and undefined, with the qualifier overall enjoying strong turnout from the NA subtop. The first three rounds of the qualifier played out largely as expected, with a number of ESEA Advanced teams falling at this stage, with DETONATE felling InControl, Take Flyte taking down Wanted Goons, NRG crushing Lycus Empire, and undefined taking an unexpected loss to Peruvian stack Bluekillers.
In round four, NRG played their closest match of the open qualifier against DETONATE, securing a 13-9 win over the team on Anubis. Meanwhile, LAG claimed a clean 13-7 on Anubis win over Mexican stack MarcaRegistrada, Party Astronauts bested E-Xolos LAZER 13-3 on Mirage, and Elevate smacked Bluekillers with a 13-0 win on Ancient.
In the final round of play NRG cruised into the Closed Qualifier with a decisive 2-0 series against LAG, brushing aside the international squad with a 13-2 win on Vertigo and a 13-5 scoreline on Dust2.
NRGLAG| NRG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
35 - 17 | +18 | 109.2 | 93.9% | 1.80 |
 Jadan 'HexT' Postma |
34 - 18 | +16 | 107.5 | 78.8% | 1.73 |
| Timothy 'autimatic' Ta |
26 - 14 | +12 | 81.3 | 90.9% | 1.39 |
| Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte |
31 - 20 | +11 | 82.7 | 84.8% | 1.38 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
25 - 17 | +8 | 84.4 | 78.8% | 1.31 |
| LAG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raymon 'rayxts' Mando |
20 - 31 | -11 | 80.3 | 72.7% | 0.86 |
| Nick 'nicx' Lee |
22 - 31 | -9 | 68.3 | 57.6% | 0.77 |
| Wyatt 'Weeza' Sahrmann |
15 - 29 | -14 | 53.4 | 60.6% | 0.65 |
 Deniz 'Experative' Mutlum |
15 - 29 | -14 | 67.2 | 54.5% | 0.64 |
 Bogdan 'ogwizard' Savula |
14 - 31 | -17 | 43.7 | 45.5% | 0.43 |
On the other side of the bracket, Party Astronauts' match against Elevate was far closer, with Ancient being a full-time 13-11 win for PA while Nuke was forced in overtime before the Astronauts won it with a perfect overtime to secure a 16-12 scoreline.
Party AstronautsElevate| Party Astronauts |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Justin 'FaNg' Coakley |
38 - 32 | +6 | 83.3 | 67.3% | 1.21 |
| Gage 'Infinite' Green |
40 - 28 | +12 | 82.6 | 73.1% | 1.20 |
| Danny 'cxzi' Strzelczyk |
34 - 38 | -4 | 74.9 | 75.0% | 1.05 |
| Adam 'WolfY' Andersson |
34 - 37 | -3 | 69.8 | 67.3% | 0.94 |
| Ben 'ben1337' Smith |
33 - 39 | -6 | 67.9 | 67.3% | 0.92 |
| Elevate |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Derek 'dare' Brown |
37 - 38 | -1 | 83.1 | 63.5% | 1.15 |
 Deni 'dea' Ediev |
34 - 33 | +1 | 76.5 | 76.9% | 1.11 |
| Wyatt 'snav' Phillippi |
35 - 31 | +4 | 71.3 | 73.1% | 1.05 |
| Jaxon 'Peeping' Cornwell |
37 - 37 | +0 | 68.4 | 78.8% | 0.95 |
| Shane 'shane' Dressler |
29 - 40 | -11 | 62.7 | 65.4% | 0.83 |
The team list for the ESL Challenger Atlanta NA Closed Qualifier is now:
• Nouns
• 
Wildcard
• NRG
• Party Astronauts
The ESL Challenger Atlanta NA Closed Qualifier is set to start on August 29th.
