What to expect from M80 v. Wildcard

M80 and Wildcard, the only two North American teams at ESL Challenger at DreamHack Atlanta, will face off in one of Group B's opening matchups. Both teams are looking to represent the region and show out for the home crowd.

M80 on a hot streak

M80 enters Atlanta at their highest HLTV global ranking ever, sitting at 19 after a strong showing at ESL Pro League Season 20. The NA roster notched three straight 2-0 wins against Complexity, Fnatic, and Imperial to win their group and guarantee a top eight finish, but lost to MIBR in the quarterfinals. M80 also emerged victorious in the longest CS2 map ever recorded on LAN, after beating Fnatic with a 37-34 score on Anubis.

• Lake showed up in his international debut with the team

• M80 enters Atlanta hot after ESL Challenger league play

• At full strength

Wildcard shuffles the deck

Wildcard did not fare as well in Malta and exited Pro League early, but the NA roster did notch a win versus KOI and came a few rounds shy of scoring a massive upset over Team Spirit. Unfortunately for Wildcard, they will be without Love "phzy" Smidebrant due to visa issues. Phzy was by far and away the best player for Wildcard at Pro League, and the team will need stand-in Sebastian "fr3nd" Kuśmierz to step up in his stead.

• Veteran experience in stanislaw and Sonic

• Core has steadily climbed the global rankings the past few months

• Won most recent meeting with M80

Previous matchups

Wildcard won the previous matchup from CCT Season 2 this past August, in the only meeting between the two teams since M80 acquired Mason "Lake" Sanderson. However, M80 won the previous five best-of-three matches prior to that one.

Likely Vetoes

• Wildcard removes Mirage

• M80 removes Inferno

• M80 removes Dust2

• Wildcard removes Anubis

• Wildcard removes Vertigo

• M80 removes Nuke

• Ancient is left over