ESL Premiership Autumn 2023RAPTORS EC win ESL Premiership Autumn
The British national championship has a new title holder.
RAPTORS EC have secured the ESL Premiership Autumn title after a 2-1 win over Endpoint in the final. Marco "MMS" Salomone and company have thus secured the trophy and the $5,964 grand prize, alongside a spot at the ESL Pro League S19 EU Conference.
RAPTORS EC made the event through the open qualifier, where they beat an Into the Breach team that featured Owen "smooya" Butterfield and James "bevve" Slinn to secure a British majority. Their first test in Birmingham came in the form of Invictum, who they comfortably dispatched before facing off against Verdant for a grand final spot. RAPTORS EC were victorious in a two-map series against the ex-Viperio core and qualified for the grand final.
Their final opponents were Endpoint, who have long been the dominant side in Britain and placed in the top two every time they attended a season of ESL Premiership. This time, Endpoint's tournament road started against Overpowered, who they beat with two 16-0 scorelines. ex-Coalesce was next on the chopping block, and Endpoint once again secured a dominant 2-0 victory to set up a grand final clash against underdogs RAPTORS EC.
The final showdown began as expected, as Endpoint breezed to a dominant 16-6 victory on their opponents' pick of Ancient. RAPTORS EC found their groove and fought back to win the series, however, first with a 16-14 win on Vertigo before they secured the title on Inferno, 16-13.
Ex-OG Academy player Slaven "AwaykeN" Lyubenov was the top performer for his team at the tournament and averaged a 1.26 rating, slightly ahead of his closest teammate Rasmus "zodi" Frølich at 1.18.
For Endpoint, this loss marks the second consecutive time they failed to secure the ESL Premiership title after falling to Into the Breach last time around. The team, which has returned to a British core during their summer rebuild, were the dominant side in the tournament but once again faltered at the final hurdle.
 RAPTORS EC |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 57 - 48 | +9 | 70.4 | 72.8% | 1.08 | |
| 57 - 57 | 0 | 74.5 | 67.9% | 1.00 | |
| 51 - 54 | -3 | 66.0 | 71.6% | 0.98 | |
| 54 - 61 | -7 | 73.2 | 58.0% | 0.92 | |
| 39 - 57 | -18 | 68.7 | 65.4% | 0.86 |
  Endpoint |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 73 - 57 | +16 | 98.8 | 82.7% | 1.41 | |
| 56 - 46 | +10 | 74.3 | 79.0% | 1.16 | |
| 53 - 50 | +3 | 69.1 | 81.5% | 1.11 | |
| 52 - 49 | +3 | 75.5 | 70.4% | 1.10 | |
| 41 - 57 | -16 | 58.6 | 65.4% | 0.84 |
Tobias 'shyyne' Sæther
Owen 'smooya' Butterfield
Joey 'CRUC1AL' Steusel
Sebastian 'volt' Maloș
Felix 'Frøg' Bergeron
Aleksei 'Qikert' Golubev
Kévin 'misutaaa' Rabier
Aurimas 'Bymas' Pipiras
Tom 'arTisT' Clarke
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