M80 qualify for ESL Challenger Atlanta

Fritz "⁠slaxz-⁠" Dietrich's timely addition has immediately paid off.

M80 have emerged victorious from the North America closed qualifier for ESL Challenger Atlanta, becoming the sixth team to confirm their spot at the event after beating Evil Geniuses in the grand final of the four-team bracket.

The team led by Marcus "⁠maNkz⁠" Kjeldsen started their qualifier run in the open bracket, where they played their first matches with slaxz- after acquiring the AWPer from ALTERNATE aTTaX, and successfully earned a berth to the closed stage.

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Official: slaxz- joins M80

The opening game in the closed qualifier didn't go as M80 would have hoped as they were cast down to the lower bracket by Party Astronauts, who scraped past maNkz's men in a 2-1 series that featured overtime on two maps.

Evil Geniuses, meanwhile, had the opposite occur as they narrowly surpassed Wildcard in their own opening game before beating Party Astronauts to make the grand final.

M80 had the last laugh, however, sweeping both Wildcard and Party Astronauts 2-0 in the lower final and consolidation final to make it to the qualifying matchup against Evil Geniuses.

There, M80 ran away with things on the T side of their Vertigo pick, dominating EG for the entirety of the first half courtesy of a stellar start from newcomer slaxz-, and strong rifle work from the remainder of the rifling pack later into their attacking effort.

A pistol round and subsequent conversion after the side swap allowed M80 to extend their dominant lead to 12-2, but it wasn't until seven rounds later that they managed to close things out.

EG didn't fare any better on their Ancient pick despite a closer first half, this time with M80 leading 7-5 at the break before they completely ran away with the T side to clinch victory, 13-6.

Six teams are now confirmed for ESL Challenger Atlanta, with the final two spots going to the winners of the Asia and Europe closed qualifiers on Saturday. The team list for the $100,000 main event, slated to run from December 15-17, is as follows: