The Spanish lineup did not drop a single map in their victory run, snagging their first LAN trophy of the year. With the win, Movistar Riders will receive $50,000 out of the $100,000 prize pool in addition to a place in the ESL Pro League Season 18.

Bad News Eagles, the runners-up, received $20,000, while ECSTATIC and Grayhound got $10,000 out of the sum. Complexity and Rare Atom came in next at $3,000, with EG Black and VERTEX winning $2,000.

Movistar Riders’ game against Bad News Eagles was a rematch between the teams following the Spanish squad’s earlier win. While Bad News Eagles seemed to have shaken off the loss with wins over Grayhound and Rare Atom, the outcome was similar to the first match.

Movistar Riders won Bad News Eagles in two maps during their best of three, taking home the trophy. Alejandro “?alex?” Masanet performed amazingly during the match, recording the highest numbers and pushing his team to victory.

The player averaged a 1.30 rating, won six clutches, and recorded 78.2% KAST. Movistar Riders�� victory was also aided by the efforts of Alejandro “?mopoz?” Fern��ndez-Quejo Cano and the squad��s in-game leader Antonio “?Martinez?” Martinez. The rifler��s efforts on the T side, in addition to ?Martinez?��s lay with the AWP, powered the team to victory.

Movistar Riders were initially not part of the tournament and only joined four days before the event started. ESL invited the squad to compete following TheMongolz’s withdrawal from the event.

The team began their climb to the top in the group stage, where they snagged a victory from Rare Atom on Anubis. The close match extended to overtime before Movistar Riders managed to beat out Rare Atom.

Their next match-up was the first game against Bad News Eagles, where they beat out the team to win a place alongside Group B��s highest seed in the playoffs. Movistar moved up to the event’s semi-finals, pairing off with the Danish lineup ECSTATIC in their first best-of-three fixture.

Movistar Riders proved too much for the Danish squad despite their earlier win over Complexity, North America’s highest representatives in the tournament. The squad dealt out a clean sweep to ECSTATIC, securing a place in the event��s finals.

Movistar Rider��s victory has secured the squad their second ESL Challenger trophy following their first win in Valencia, Spain, last summer albeit with a different lineup. Rather than Pere “?sausol?” Solsona Saumell and Matinez, the previous squad consisted of Ra��l “?DeathZz?” Jord��n Nieto and Alvaro “?SunPayus?” Garcia.

Movistar Rider��s next tournament is the ESL Challenger League Season 45 Europe, which will carry on for the next few weeks. They are also set to compete in ESL Pro League Season 18 between August 31 and October 1.

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Complexity arrive in Melbourne as the highest-ranked team at the event (no.18), and they come off a promising BLAST.tv Paris Major Americas RMR where they finished fourth and qualified for the Challengers Stage. This Complexity roster has been together for over eight months now and performed quite well domestically; however, the jury is still out about how competitive these guys are on the international level.

ECSTATIC may only be a relatively new roster, but they have been in great form of late. The all-Danish squad won their ESL Challenger Melbourne Open and Closed Qualifier, before finishing fifth-eighth at CCT Central Europe Series 5 at their most recent event. ECSTATIC, the world no.55, come into this match with Complexity as massive outsiders, but given the inconsistencies of the North American team, we could see a closer match than many expect.

Evil Geniuses Black will get their ESL Challenger Melbourne campaign underway against one of the two Australian teams, with the world no.48 clashing with Grayhound in their opening round best-of-one series. This Evil Geniuses roster has chopped and changed over the last six months due to a lack of results, with three new players added. However, with this current roster, EG Black have finished third in the ESL Challenger League Season 44 North America, won their ESL Challenger Melbourne North America Closed Qualifier and finished third-fourth BLAST Premier Spring Showdown Americas.

The top hope for the Aussies will be Grayhound, with the world no.26 receiving a direct invite to the event due to their ESL ranking. Grayhound are dominating the regional scene, with the all-Australian roster winning the IEM Dallas 2023 Oceania Closed Qualifier and BLAST.tv Paris Major Asia RMR, while they are currently undefeated in ESL Australia & NZ Championship Season 16. Grayhound are one of the rough chances to take out this event, but first they need to get through Group A and make the playoffs.

Bad News Eagles make their way to Melbourne off the back of a strong showing in the BLAST.tv Paris Major Europe RMR A, finishing fourth and booking their place in the Legends Stage. Ranked no.23 in the world, BNE are currently on a four-match win streak and appear a very good chance to extend that to five when they take on Vertex in their opening round series. BNE have won four of their last seven best-of-one series, and their form against S-Tier teams in Europe is far superior from most of the teams at ESL Challenger Melbourne.

VERTEX will be the lowest-ranked team at ESL Challenger Melbourne 2023, and they look to be up against it in their first series of the tournament. Although the all-Australian squad made it through the Oceania Closed Qualifier, they have been competing in far inferior competition when compared to Bad News Eagles. This should be a one-sided affair.

Rare Atom have improved their world ranking over the last two months, rising from no.74 in the world to their current ranking of no.31. This Chinese squad were in great form before they competed in ESL Pro League 17, where they finished 21st-28th. Since then they have been knocked out in the opening round of the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown Europe and failed to qualify for the Paris Major earlier this month.

Movistar Riders are replacing TheMongolz at ESL Challenger Melbourne after the all-Mongolian team withdrew from the event. Movistar are the third-highest-ranked team at this event, currently ranked as the world no.25; however, their form coming into the event is questionable. The all-Spanish roster were bundled out of ESL Pro League 17 in 13th-16th place before they failed to qualify for IEM Dallas as they were knocked out in the opening round.

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ESL Challenger Melbourne 2023 will begin on April 28 and conclude on April 30, with the entire event taking place during DreamHack Melbourne at Rod Laver Arena.

The eight rosters will compete for a US$100,000 prize pool and a $50,000 winners’ cheque, as well as a spot in ESL Pro League Season 18 in August.

World no.13 Complexity and no.22 IHC were both invited due to their ESL rankings, while Grayhound (#27) and Bad News Eagles (#29) will also be among the drawcards.

Rare Atom (#26), ECSTATIC (#60), EG Black (#63), and Vertex (#76) qualified through the North American, European, Asian, and Oceania closed qualifiers.

These eight teams will be enjoying a Chicken Parma come April 28 – 30 for #ESLChallenger Melbourne

@grayhoundgaming
@EvilGeniuses
@Complexity
@_badnewseagles
@ihc_esports
@VertexESC
@rare_atom
@EcstaticCS

https://t.co/833J3FgywG pic.twitter.com/qSJkH69z98

— ESL Counter-Strike 2 (@ESLCS) April 3, 2023

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