Monte, TheMongolz clinch ESL Challenger Atlanta playoffs; Complexity eliminated

The American team crumbled in their group decider and head home in disappointment.

The playoff bracket for championship Sunday is set in Atlanta after The MongolZ and Monte secured victory in their group decider matches over Complexity and BESTIA, respectively.

The MongolZ started their tournament run off on good footing after narrowly besting Complexity in an overtime affair, but couldn't book an early ticket to the playoffs after suffering a one-sided loss to Apeks.

Their second go at Complexity went even better, however, with the Mongolian roster blowing Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou's side out of the server on Inferno (13-3) before capitalizing on numerous mistakes to end the IEM Sydney runner-ups' eight-map winstreak on Overpass (13-8).

Complexity can only head home in disappointment after losing on home turf, an entirely unexpected results for a team that were favorites for the title after their uptick in form in CS2. Squandered multi-man advantages and ninja defuses on Overpass add insult to injury in the loss, leaving the team heading into the break on a sour note.

Complexity were not the only North American team to head home, either. M80 also suffered an early exit at the hands of BESTIA in the Group B elimination match, pushing the Argentine team to the limit on both Inferno (11-13) and Anubis (11-13) despite needing to use coach Rory "⁠dephh⁠" Jackson as a stand-in for their in-game leader, Marcus "⁠maNkz⁠" Kjeldsen.

BESTIA couldn't capitalize on that victory, however, with their own stand-in situation leaving them no match for Monte, who simply outclassed them in the decider match.

Monte will take on Apeks in the semi-finals on Sunday as they look to lift back-to-back trophies at ESL Challenger events, having won ESL Jönköping just three weeks ago. The MongolZ face a more difficult test as Virtus.pro await them on the opposite side of the bracket, with the winner of each series facing off for the title later the same day.

Date	Matches
ESL Challenger Atlanta 2023
17/12/2023	Virtus.pro 15:00 The MongolZ	Match
17/12/2023	Apeks 17:45 Monte	Match
17/12/2023	Virtus.pro 22:25 Apeks	Match