ESL Challenger Atlanta 2023Virtus.pro secure ESL Challenger Atlanta title
The Russian team have earned themselves a spot in ESL Pro League Season 19 with the victory.
Virtus.pro have been crowned champions of ESL Challenger Atlanta after beating Apeks 2-0 in the grand final (13-5 Ancient, 13-4 Inferno).
The victory earns the Russian team the lion's share of the $100,000 prize pool and secures them a spot in ESL Pro League Season 19, which is slated to run from April 23-May 12. It also marks their first LAN tournament victory since adding Nikolay "mir" Bityukov, with their previous offline wins dating back to June at FiReLEAGUE Battle and ESL Challenger Katowice.
For Apeks. the result adds to a strong run of form at the tail end of the year, following up on their Elisa Masters Espoo runners-up finish with another in Atlanta. However, the team will likely walk away disappointed after missing another chance to clinch a title, a comeback against Monte ultimately proving fruitless as Virtus.pro simply outclassed them to lift the trophy.
Dzhami "Jame" Ali's side breezed into the playoffs after dispatching of M80 and Monte in best-of-ones in the group stage, and faced some early contention from The MongolZ in the semi-finals before eventually closing out Overpass (13-11) and Inferno (13-8) to secure a finals berth.
Apeks also went undefeated in Group A with wins over GamerLegion and The MongolZ, but faced a difficult test in their first playoff series against Monte. Damjan "kyxsan" Stoilkovski led by example in an overtime victory on his team's pick of Mirage (19-16), but couldn't close out a lead on Anubis (11-13) and ultimately needed to battle back from an immense 1-9 deficit on the Ancient decider to clinch victory (13-10).
That comeback effort seemed to take everything out of the international composition, however, as they simply couldn't find their footing in the title decider against Virtus.pro.
The Russian team pulled off several retakes and presented a stalwart defense to steal away Apeks' pick of Ancient (13-5), and then cruised to victory on Inferno thanks to an imperious offense that held Ådne "sense" Fredriksen to just one frag by the end of the map (13-4).
 Virtus.pro |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 - 18 | +7.08% | 88.4 | 80.0% | 1.51 | |
| 32 - 16 | +4.94% | 85.9 | 82.9% | 1.50 | |
| 30 - 20 | +4.55% | 93.6 | 74.3% | 1.46 | |
| 26 - 18 | +1.59% | 76.3 | 74.3% | 1.23 | |
| 23 - 19 | -0.34% | 67.7 | 80.0% | 1.11 |
 Apeks |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 32 - 30 | +1.77% | 99.3 | 82.9% | 1.26 | |
| 20 - 27 | -3.39% | 70.8 | 54.3% | 0.81 | |
| 16 - 24 | -4.70% | 55.2 | 62.9% | 0.72 | |
| 14 - 27 | -4.08% | 49.2 | 51.4% | 0.57 | |
| 8 - 32 | -7.44% | 29.8 | 42.9% | 0.28 |
ESL Challenger Atlanta final standings:
1.
Virtus.pro - $50,000 + ESL Pro League Season 19
2.Apeks - $20,000
3-4.Monte - $10,000
3-4.The MongolZ - $10,000
5-6.BESTIA - $3,000
5-6.Complexity - $3,000
7-8.M80 - $2,000
7-8.
Alexander 'br0' Bro
Szymon 'kRaSnaL' Mrozek
Nicolas 'Keoz' Dgus
Sebastian 'volt' Maloș
Ashley 'ash' Battye
Mario 'malbsMd' Samayoa
Fritz 'slaxz-' Dietrich
Dastan 'dastan' Akbayev
Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou
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