timbermen down, NRG on top | ECL S48 Playoffs Round 1

The first round of playoffs for ESL Challenger League Season 49 kicked off last night, with timbermen and FLUFFY AIMERS already headed out the door. It was a rough showing for timbermen, whose retro squad could not adequately square up to their counterparts from Brazil. As for FLUFFY AIMERS, they tried to keep things close against BOSS but were unsuccessful in the end, as they were also sent out of the competition.

In the upper bracket, NRG prevailed in a tight battle against Party Astronauts, while Nouns provided the shock of the playoffs, triumphing 2-1 against the rockstars of Wildcard.

Nouns 2-1 Wildcard

Wildcard were firmly in the driver's seat after their opening map of Vertigo. Wildcard pulled out a dominant 9-3 T-side half that would snowball into a 13-4 victory and some comfortable momentum heading into Nuke. However, Nouns set the tone when they came out with a 6-1 start on their T-side. While Wildcard did come back to take a 6-9 lead, Nouns would pull through as they took home a 13-9 win.

The deciding map of Ancient was not too much of a contest, as Nouns continued their momentum to a 9-3 first-half CT-side. The squad soon found themselves on match point and eventually closed out the series to secure a matchup against Legacy later tonight.

NRG 2-0 Party Astronauts

It was a bit of an odd game for NRG last night. They absolutely demolished Party Astronauts on Inferno and then struggled to get the game over the line on their own pick of Ancient.

There wasn't much to say about Inferno other than NRG just had their number. It was an absolute mauling on PA's pick as they took an 11-1 half and then closed it out 13-2. The second game could not have been more even the two sides splitting each half perfectly until overtime when NRG finally took the win 16-13 to take the series and advance.

BOSS 2-0 FLUFFY AIMERS

It was pretty easy for BOSS as they certainly took the AIMERS to task last night in a 2-0 sweep. The victory for BOSS lets them live another day in the playoffs while FLUFFY AIMERS have been eliminated. BOSS quickly took them down 13-7 on Vertigo thanks to a dominant second-half T-side. On their own pick of Ancient BOSS were also neck and neck with the AIMERS through the first half but once again pulled through in the second to secure their victory.

timbermen 0-2 E-Xolos LAZER

Brazil came to the United States and they certainly conquered one of the better teams from the last year. timbermen were crushed by the former Advance squad. The Brazilians had a strong CT-side to help them secure Dust2 13-7 and then cruised to a similarly dominant 13-6 win on Mirage as they advanced to the next round of the lower bracket.

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