ESL Challenger Atlanta 2024Wildcard beat M80 to make ESLC Atlanta playoffs
Despite sporting a stand-in, Wildcard rose to the occasion to seal a playoff berth.
Wildcard have advanced to the playoffs of ESL Challenger Atlanta 2024 thanks to an upset victory over M80, recovering from an opening loss on their pick of Dust2 (7-13) by winning Anubis (13-8) and Vertigo (13-8). As their reward, Wildcard have earned a semi-final bout with FlyQuest.
| Date | Matches | |
|---|---|---|
| ESL Challenger Atlanta 2024 | ||
| 06/10/2024 |
16:00
|
Match |
Wildcard came into ESL Challenger Atlanta at less than full strength as their highest-rated player, Love "phzy" Smidebrant, was forced to miss the tournament due to visa issues. 22-year-old Pole Sebastian "fr3nd" Kuśmierz, previously of teams like HONORIS and Enterprise, was called up to serve as a stand in, and as a result the expectations for Wildcard's performance were thoroughly dampened.
Their campaign in Atlanta began in tough fashion with a defeat at the hands of M80, and so with all context considered, it was not expected that Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz and company would have much better luck in a rematch with a playoff berth on the line.
Wildcard instead pulled off the upset in memorable fashion, reverse-sweeping higher-ranked opponents after stumbling on their own pick of Dust2. Potent retakes powered them to victory on the usually T-sided Anubis, with Tim "susp" Ångström putting up a hard-carry performance, whilst stand-in fr3nd stepped up to aid susp in powering their team to victory on the decider of Vertigo.
M80 will be thoroughly disappointed in their performance, considering their recent impressive run at ESL Pro League and the fact Wildcard played with an under-strength roster.
Lacklustre offensive halves hamstrung M80's efforts across the series, and they struggled badly for individual impact in the latter two maps. As a result, they squandered an opportunity to build upon their promising top-eight finish at ESL Pro League.
 M80 |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43 - 39 | +0.41% | 70.9 | 82.3% | 1.19 | |
| 42 - 44 | +2.13% | 79.8 | 67.7% | 1.05 | |
| 35 - 42 | +0.14% | 73.9 | 74.2% | 1.02 | |
| 41 - 45 | -0.15% | 75.2 | 74.2% | 1.02 | |
| 38 - 42 | -2.54% | 62.6 | 69.4% | 0.86 |
  Wildcard |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 54 - 38 | -0.12% | 86.6 | 72.6% | 1.28 | |
| 43 - 39 | -0.49% | 70.0 | 74.2% | 1.15 | |
| 40 - 43 | +0.78% | 74.9 | 72.6% | 1.11 | |
| 41 - 42 | -1.18% | 73.2 | 66.1% | 0.97 | |
| 33 - 37 | +0.83% | 61.3 | 69.4% | 0.94 |
Rory 'dephh' Jackson
Erdenetsogt 'erkaSt' Gantulga
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