00NATION send FURIA home from ESL Challenger Valencia

The new-look 00NATION best their fellow Brazilians FURIA in two maps.

Group A's elimination match at ESL Challenger Valencia saw a South American derby play out, with both 00NATION and FURIA fighting for their tournament lives. In the end, Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David's squad was able to edge out FURIA in two, 16-11 on Ancient, and 16-8 on Vertigo. 00NATION are now set to face off against Sprout in a decider on Saturday for Group A's second and final playoff spot on offer.

Meanwhile, tournament favorites FURIA's ESL Challenger Valencia campaign has come to a disappointing end after failing to secure a single win. The Brazilians' woes continue after yet another surprise exit following their two shaky losses to 9z at the recently-concluded Roobet Cup. With their next challenge being IEM Cologne just around the corner, Andrei "⁠arT⁠" Piovezan's side are now in a tough spot to try and make a deep run through the competition against much stronger opponents.

FURIA came out of the gates swinging on Ancient, producing a 7-0 lead behind their superb utility usage and individual contributions, with Yuri "⁠yuurih⁠" Santos and André "⁠drop⁠" Abreu leading the way in terms of kills. 00NATION were finally able to get the ball rolling on their side, winning six out of the next seven with the lone dropped round coming at the hands of Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato's quad-kill in the tenth. Crucially, arT's UMP double was able to stop 00NATION's advances into A site in the 15th which turned into a FURIA round win, killing their opponents' streak and sitting at a 9-6 lead by halftime.

Three rounds into the second half, FURIA's lead had completely disappeared as 00NATION's hot start on their CT side, highlighted by back-to-back triple-kills from Bruno "⁠latto⁠" Rebelatto, brought the game to a stalemate at nine apiece. Both teams kept it close as the game dragged on with neither side getting a clear-cut advantage, before coldzera's 00NATION were able to pull ahead and finish off Ancient with seven consecutive round wins, completely turning things around despite the early deficit, taking a 1-0 series advantage.

Carrying all the momentum and confidence after winning Ancient, 00NATION's CT side performance constantly troubled FURIA's advances on either bomb site as arT's crew were visibly struggling on a map they had boasted a 72% winrate on over the last three months. Contributing largely to his team's success, Eduardo "⁠dumau⁠" Wolkmer had a splendid individual outing in the first period, racking up a 17-8 K-D including a 1vs3 clutch in the 13th, all of which helped 00NATION enter the break up 10-5.

Things didn't look much different coming out of the break, as FURIA were only able to muster up three more rounds to their tally before ultimately failing to catch up to 00NATION's astounding lead, losing 8-16 on Vertigo and exiting the tournament altogether in 7-8th place.