Wildcard lock down upper bracket in ESL Challenger Atlanta CQ
Last night, the ESL Challenger Atlanta NA Closed Qualifier began, seeing Nouns, Wildcard, NRG, and Party Astronauts battle to secure a single spot in NA's final international LAN event of 2024. Day one of the qualifier saw Wildcard triumph in the upper bracket with wins over Party Astronauts and NRG, while Party Astronauts were felled by Nouns in the opening round of the lower bracket, marking a bitter end to the lineup's final outing together.
The opening series of the Closed Qualifier saw Wildcard take down Party Astronauts 2-0, with a close 13-11 win on Inferno and a dominant 13-4 win on Vertigo, while NRG claimed a close 2-1 series win over Nouns. Map one went the way of Nouns with a 13-8 win on Inferno before NRG secured a crushing 13-4 win on Ancient. The final map in the series, Mirage, came down to a close 13-10 win by NRG owing in large part to a strong T-side from the squad.
Moving into the lower bracket, Nouns made quick work of Party Astronauts, brushing aside Ben "ben1337" Smith and co. via a 13-8 win on Anubis and a 13-2 win on Vertigo. The loss is the final time this quintet will play together as Danny "cxzi" Strzelczyk and Adam "WolfY" Andersson both announced they were set to search for new teams after the qualifier.
Party AstronautsNouns| Party Astronauts |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ben 'ben1337' Smith |
24 - 31 | -7 | 82.9 | 66.7% | 0.94 |
| Gage 'Infinite' Green |
22 - 30 | -8 | 77.0 | 72.2% | 0.89 |
| Danny 'cxzi' Strzelczyk |
19 - 31 | -12 | 65.2 | 52.8% | 0.73 |
| Adam 'WolfY' Andersson |
19 - 31 | -12 | 55.5 | 66.7% | 0.67 |
 Justin 'FaNg' Coakley |
20 - 27 | -7 | 55.1 | 61.1% | 0.64 |
| Nouns |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jeorge 'Jeorge' Endicott |
39 - 21 | +18 | 105.6 | 91.7% | 1.68 |
| Carson 'nosraC' O'Reilly |
30 - 19 | +11 | 83.2 | 86.1% | 1.40 |
| Paytyn 'junior' Johnson |
33 - 18 | +15 | 84.4 | 80.6% | 1.39 |
| Christopher 'cJ dA K1nG' Jones |
27 - 22 | +5 | 82.2 | 83.3% | 1.29 |
| William 'RUSH' Wierzba |
21 - 24 | -3 | 77.1 | 88.9% | 1.16 |
In the upper bracket finals, NRG began the series versus Wildcard in the lead with a 13-5 win on Anubis, their map pick, before Wildcard claimed a similar 13-8 map pick victory on Ancient. With the series tied, Dust2 started with NRG beginning the map up 10-4 thanks to a stellar T-side before crumbling on their CT-side, allowing Wildcard to claw their way back to a 13-11 victory, winning the series 2-1.
WildcardNRG| Wildcard |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek |
56 - 43 | +13 | 86.2 | 76.2% | 1.30 |
 Tim 'susp' Ångström |
44 - 46 | -2 | 87.2 | 76.2% | 1.16 |
| Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz |
45 - 42 | +3 | 80.8 | 76.2% | 1.10 |
| Josh 'JBa' Barutt |
39 - 40 | -1 | 68.7 | 71.4% | 1.02 |
| Love 'phzy' Smidebrant |
38 - 44 | -6 | 67.7 | 69.8% | 0.95 |
| NRG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jadan 'HexT' Postma |
53 - 49 | +4 | 92.2 | 68.3% | 1.15 |
| Timothy 'autimatic' Ta |
45 - 44 | +1 | 78.1 | 68.3% | 1.05 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
40 - 37 | +3 | 65.3 | 74.6% | 1.01 |
| Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte |
45 - 45 | +0 | 68.7 | 69.8% | 1.01 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
32 - 48 | -16 | 64.8 | 74.6% | 0.82 |
Day two of the Closed Qualifier is set to start in short order today at 05:30PM with NRG and Nouns playing a rematch series in the lower bracket.
