Swole Patrol eliminate 5POWER from EPICENTER Wild Card Qualifier

Swole Patrol are through to the EPICENTER Wild Card consolidation final after defeating 5POWER 2-0 (16-7 on both Nuke and Inferno).

The lower bracket final kicked off on Swole Patrol's map pick, Nuke, with the Asian side securing a 3-0 lead as CTs. With doubles from Jordan "⁠Zellsis⁠" Montemurro and Braxton "⁠swag⁠" Pierce, the Americans then got their first round on the board, which they followed up with two more to break their opponents' economy and equalize the score.

Swole Patrol turned the score around by winning the next two rounds, but 5POWER tightened up their defence to go up 6-5. Still, swag and co. strung together the following rounds fairly easily to lead 9-6 by half-time.

In the second half, Swole Patrol won their CT pistol and the subsequent anti-eco. The Americans further increased their lead with a gun round, in which Zellsis and Ryan "⁠freakazoid⁠" Abadir found a double and triple-kill, respectively. Zellsis then added a triple-kill kill to his name, inspiring his team to hit 13 rounds.

Then, 5POWER finally picked up their first round in the second half, but that was not enough to stop Swole Patrol, who quickly finished off the map at 16-7.

Next up was Inferno, and 5POWER started things off on the right foot after winning the pistol, an anti-eco and the first gun round, this time around as Terrorists. Swole Patrol still lost one more before going on a massive run, constantly shutting down 5POWER's strategies to make it 7-4 in their favour.

That was when 5POWER were finally able to get back on the board with a triple-kill from Gan-Erdene "⁠dobu⁠" Batbold, who inspired his teammates to follow that up with their sixth round. However, Swole Patrol won the final two rounds of the half with a triple and a double-kill from Zellsis to switch sides with a 9-6 lead.

Swole Patrol got off to a flying start in the second half, winning four rounds in a row without much effort. Just like on the previous map, 5POWER still responded with their seventh round, but it was in vain as Austin "⁠Cooper⁠" Abadir's troops went on to seal the deal, 16-7.