Latin American squads qualify to ESL Challenger League S50
ESEA Advanced Season 52 playoffs has reached the upper bracket finals with two surprising teams left standing in the upper bracket. Mexican squad MarcaRegistrada and Peruvian team LoboArmy managed to best three American teams to secure a top-four finish which guarantees a $2,000 payout as well as lucrative spots into ESL Challenger League Season 50.
As a reminder, ESL confirmed massive changes to ESL Challenger League at the start of the year, changing the league to consist of eight teams from the Americas VRS and eight teams from ESEA Advanced each season. With four teams set to come from ESEA Advanced Season 52, MarcaRegistrada and LoboArmy are locked in, thus marking a significant achievement for the LATAM CS scene.
MarcaRegistrada's path to the upper bracket finals saw the Mexican squad start their run in round two with a close 2-1 win over Mythic before also taking down MIGHT in a 2-1 series. In the upper-bracket semifinals, the team then felled Kameron "K4mr0" Bouma's anything else squad with a confident 2-0 to lock down their ECL spot.
Marca Registradaanything else| Marca Registrada |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Arturo 'AMC' Morales Carrasco |
45 - 20 | +25 | 105.0 | 81.0% | 1.81 |
| Jorge 'b1' Alberto Treviño Díaz |
40 - 25 | +15 | 108.5 | 90.5% | 1.56 |
| Jose Luis 'Majesticzz' Salazar |
29 - 23 | +6 | 69.3 | 95.2% | 1.29 |
 Marcos 'Jardani' Contreras |
27 - 29 | -2 | 80.5 | 81.0% | 1.10 |
 Andres 'spamzzy' Correa |
23 - 27 | -4 | 69.7 | 81.0% | 0.97 |
| anything else |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Kevin 'cypress' Quib |
33 - 30 | +3 | 85.6 | 66.7% | 1.03 |
 Thomas 'FAME' Barbeau |
25 - 35 | -10 | 74.9 | 61.9% | 0.88 |
| Chris 'Slash' Petersen |
22 - 35 | -13 | 62.8 | 57.1% | 0.71 |
| Kameron 'K4mr0' Bouma |
20 - 34 | -14 | 62.3 | 59.5% | 0.71 |
| Christian 'mcniff' McNiff |
24 - 32 | -8 | 58.3 | 52.4% | 0.71 |
LoboArmy's route saw the squad initially take down French Canadian squad Homyno 2-0 before securing a close 2-1 win over Take Flyte. In their qualifying match the team impressed with a dominant 2-0 showing over the experienced Tsunami roster.
TsunamiLOBOARMY| Tsunami |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nikolaos 'Pose1doNN' Antoniou |
33 - 32 | +1 | 72.5 | 64.3% | 1.01 |
| Andrew 'CAJUN' Guidroz |
27 - 33 | -6 | 76.6 | 78.6% | 1.00 |
| Max 'caustic' Gibson |
27 - 33 | -6 | 69.0 | 59.5% | 0.88 |
 Connor 'CoolComs' Barnes |
23 - 33 | -10 | 60.5 | 66.7% | 0.82 |
| Evindar 'Drop' Isik |
15 - 30 | -15 | 56.9 | 64.3% | 0.63 |
| LOBOARMY |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Antonio 'zockie' Montañez |
42 - 24 | +18 | 102.1 | 78.6% | 1.56 |
| Rodrigo 'Antuanette' Armando |
34 - 26 | +8 | 85.0 | 78.6% | 1.31 |
| Juan 'Slayerhz' Rodriguez |
32 - 20 | +12 | 74.8 | 73.8% | 1.28 |
| Enmanuel 'SJR' Villar |
29 - 27 | +2 | 73.2 | 81.0% | 1.21 |
| Steve 'BabyRage' Vilca |
24 - 28 | -4 | 70.9 | 78.6% | 1.03 |
MarcaRegistrada's accomplishment sees Arturo "AMC" Morales Carrasco and co. become the first Mexican squad in North America's top domestic competition since 2019 when Jose "SecretAgent" Fernandez's Forty Six and 2 squad competed in ESEA MDL Season 30
As for LoboArmy, they are the first Peruvian team to ever compete in the division, with the last time a Peruvian player featured in the league being Joel "tor1towOw" Rios on Infinity back during ESEA MDL Season 34 in 2020.
With one of these teams guaranteed a spot in the finals we very well may see a Latin American team win ESEA Advanced Season 52 unless NA can rally and come from the lower bracket to best them.
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