Grayhound clinch ESL Pro League Season 17 berth

Grayhound is the first of two teams from the Oceania region to secure a spot at the LAN event in Malta.

Grayhound have become the first team from the Oceania Conference to lock in their appearance at ESL Pro League Season 17 after picking up a first-place finish in the online qualifier. Hello Kitten and Rooster are now scheduled to face off in the decider game on Friday at 10:00 , eager to nab the sole spot up for grabs.

Grayhound's qualification for ESL's flagship league LAN event also gifts the Australian side a unique opportunity to have an extended period of practice in Europe, where they will be able to test their mettle against some of the very best outside of their home continent. ESL Pro League Season 17 will be the team's second LAN outside of Australia in 2023 after the upcoming IEM Katowice Play-In.

Liazz topped the scoreboard with a 1.32 rating in the qualifying matchup

The Joshua "⁠INS⁠" Potter-led roster came into the three-team competition as the top seed after winning ESL ANZ Champs Season 15 and earned their seat at the flagship event in Malta after besting Rooster, 2-1, in the second round of the upper bracket. Grayhound started off with an overtime defeat on Anubis (17-19), answered back with a commanding showing on Inferno (16-2), and finished the job on the back of a hotly-contested extra-rounds affair on Nuke (19-15).

ESL Pro League Season 17 still has eight more spots up for the taking, which will be be filled by the one more team in Oceania and squads competing in other Conference stages across Europe, North America, South America, and Asia.

The tournament's LAN event will be held on February 22-March 26 in Malta and play host to 32 teams, including all of the squads currently situated within the top 10. Notably, the previous round-robin group stage has been ditched in favour of four triple-elimination formats, with starting points in the playoffs being distributed based on the various rosters' placements in the groups.

The teams qualified for ESL Pro League Season 17 so far are as follows:

Astralis
BIG
Complexity
ENCE
Evil Geniuses
FaZe
fnatic
FURIA
G2
HEROIC
MOUZ
Natus Vincere
Ninjas in Pyjamas
Liquid
Vitality
Movistar Riders

Outsiders
paiN
Cloud9
OG
Spirit
SAW
Eternal Fire
Grayhound
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ESL Conference