BNE, ECSTATIC complete playoff bracket at ESL Challenger Melbourne

One of the pre-tournament favorites, Complexity, suffered a surprising elimination at the hands of ECSTATIC.

Bad News Eagles and ECSTATIC clinched the final two playoff spots at ESL Challenger Melbourne after winning their groups' decider games. ECSTATIC started the tournament with a loss to Complexity, but bounced back against EG Black to set up a rematch against Ricky "⁠floppy⁠" Kemery and company. This time the Danes came out on top in a marathon three-map series that qualified them for a semi-final clash against Movistar Riders.

Bad News Eagles also had a rocky road to the playoffs but got the job done in the end. An opening win against VERTEX put the Kosovar side one win away from progression before a defeat to Movistar Riders meant they had to settle for second place in the group. They defeated Rare Atom in the decider series to progress to the final four, barely avoiding elimination after a close series against the Chinese side.

BNE are the highest-ranked side remaining in the tournament

ECSTATIC made the most out of Complexity's woes on Anubis and picked into their opponents' weakness, winning the opening map 16-12 after a strong offense. The Danes then put up a lackluster display on Overpass that netted them just five rounds on the map, which meant the scores were tied up at 1-1.

The decider was Ancient, where Complexity got off to a hot start by winning the first six rounds. Just when it looked like we were in for a repeat of Overpass, Magnus "⁠Nodios⁠" Olsen and Tobias "⁠kraghen⁠" Kragh Jensen won a pair of impressive clutches to get ECSTATIC back into the game. Their teammates joined them on the scoreboard to put the scoreline at 15-9, but the Danes weren't able to close out the match in regulation.

ECSTATIC had to battle through triple overtime and eventually closed out the map 25-21 after weathering the impact of Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou and Håkon "⁠hallzerk⁠" Fjærli's clutches in the dying stages of the match. Their semi-final opponents will be fellow Europeans Movistar Riders, who topped Group A after getting the better of Rare Atom and Bad News Eagles.

Bad News Eagles came into the tournament as one of the favorites, but their road to the playoffs was far from convincing. After a hot-and-cold first day at the Australian event, Rare Atom stood between the Kosovar team and the playoffs. Their match started on Inferno, and Bad News Eagles struggled on the defensive side and went into the second half three rounds behind — a deficit they couldn't overcome as they went a map down in the series.

They tied up the series on their pick of Mirage due to putting up a wall on the CT side before coming back from 5-10 down on the Overpass defense to eke out a 16-14 win and secure a playoff berth. Their next challenge comes in the form of local heroes Grayhound in the semi-finals of the $100,000 event.

The playoff schedule is as follows:

Date	Matches
ESL Challenger Melbourne 2023
30/04/2023	Grayhound 01:00 Bad News Eagles	Match
30/04/2023	Movistar Riders 04:55 ECSTATIC	Match
30/04/2023	Bad News Eagles 08:10 Movistar Riders	Match