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After three long years, Australia finally plays host to an international CS:GO LAN in the form of ESL Challenger Melbourne, held at Olympic Park as part of DreamHack Melbourne. With $100,000 USD and a spot at ESL Pro League on the line, will our Aussie hopes hold on in front of a home crowd?
- Entropiq defeat EG, OG to book playoffs spot
- Vertex comeback attempt falls short; paiN defeat GH
- paiN wins Battle of Brazil; Wings Up send EG packing
It’s finally time.
Three years on from IEM Sydney 2019, which saw tens of thousands of esports fans flock to Qudos Bank Arena to see Team Liquid claim the trophy, the international CS:GO circuit returns Down Under.
This time, it’s ESL Challenger Melbourne.
Six teams from across the globe converge on Rod Laver Arena this Friday to take on our homegrown heroes in Grayhound and Vertex for a shot at a $50,000 USD first prize purse.
But most importantly, Sunday’s champion will also book their tickets for the ESL Pro League Season 17 Conference later this year.
There can only be one, and while they may have the home crowd on their side, pundits aren’t expecting the Aussies to go the distance.
Both the ‘Hounds and the Wolfpack have been drawn into Group B, alongside Brazilian pairing Imperial, who delighted fans with a Legends Stage finish at the PGL Antwerp Major, and the ever-rising paiN Gaming.
Grayhound will be without Declan “Vexite” Portelli, instead requiring the services of the recently released Jordan “Hatz” Bajic one last time due to ESL qualification roster locks.
Vertex utilised Christian “ADDICT” Pendleton and Peter “BL1TZ” Athanasatos at last week’s IEM Rio qualifiers, with the two expected to remain with the roster at for DreamHack.
As for our international reps, OG come in as sure favourites to take out the event.
The European squad took a massive scalp at the BLAST Premier Fall Groups this past week, defeating Major champions FaZe Clan — just a week after adding AWPer Abdul “degster” Gasanov to the squad.
It’s a return to Australia for OG’s in-game leader Nemanja “nexa” Isakovic, who captained Renegades at IEM Sydney, where they finished outside the top four.
Also returning Down Under is Brazilian trio Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, Fernando “fer” Alvarenga & Ricardo “boltz” Prass, who will represent Imperial in Melbourne next week.
FalleN & co. have made appearances at all three IEM Sydney events, taking out 2017’s inaugural tournament with SK Gaming.
We’re covering everything ESL Challenger Melbourne: schedule, streams, results and more.
ESL Challenger Melbourne Streams
ESL Challenger Melbourne streams live on Twitch. Missed the action? Catch up via the ESL CS:GO VOD page on Twitch for full replays of matches within 24 hours.
ESL Challenger Melbourne Schedule & Results
The eight attendees at DreamHack Melbourne have been split into two GSL-format groups, with the top two emerging to play in the single-elimination finals.
All match times below are in AEST.
| Group A | Group B |
| OG | Imperial Esports |
| Entropiq | paiN Gaming |
| Evil Geniuses | Grayhound |
| Wings Up Gaming | Vertex ESC |
ESL Challenger Melbourne — Day 1 (Friday, September 2)
| Match | Teams | Time (AEST) |
| Group A Opening Matches | OG 16-13 Wings Up | 10:30am |
| Entropiq 16-4 EG.PA | 12:10pm | |
| Group B Opening Matches | Imperial 16-13 Vertex | 1:50pm |
| paiN 16-12 Grayhound | 3:30pm | |
| Group A Winners’ Match | OG 13-16 Entropiq | 5:10pm |
| Group B Winners’ Match | Imperial 5-16 paiN | 6:50pm |
| Group A Elimination Match | Wings Up v EG.PA | 8:30pm |
ESL Challenger Melbourne — Day 2 (Saturday, September 3)
| Match | Teams | Time (AEST) |
| Group B Elimination Match | Vertex v Grayhound | 11am |
| Group A Decider Match | OG v TBD | 2:30pm |
| Group B Decider Match | Imperial v TBD | 6pm |
ESL Challenger Melbourne — Day 3 (Sunday, September 4)
| Match | Teams | Time (AEST) |
| Semi-Final 1 | TBD | 9am |
| Semi-Final 2 | 12:30pm | |
| Grand Final | 4pm |
ESL Challenger Melbourne Rosters
While the summer break may have ended a few weeks back, there are numerous changes to many of the rosters in attendance this week.
OG welcomed Abdulkhalik “degster” Gasanov from Team Spirit, and with their new Russian AWPer, they have already made solid ground at BLAST Premier Fall.
Imperial revamped through Marcelo “chelo” Cespedes, with Lincoln “fnx” Lau moving to coach to replace the outgoing Luis “peacemaker” Tadeu.
This will also be EG’s LAN “debut” for their second roster since their aggressive expansion in June, where the storied North American organisation took Party Astronauts and Carpe Diem under their wings.
For our Aussie reps, Grayhound will use former member Jordan “Hatz” Bajic due to roster lock rules, while Vertex will once again utilise Peter “BL1TZ” Anathastos and Christian “ADDICT” Pendleton.
| Team | Squad | ||||
| ESL World Ranking | |||||
| OG | flameZ | nexa | NEOFRAG | F1KU | degster |
| Imperial Esports | FalleN | fer | boltz | VINI | chelo |
| paiN Gaming | PKL | biguzera | hardzao | zevy | skullz |
| Grayhound | Sico | INS | aliStair | Liazz | Hatz |
| European Qualifier | |||||
| Entropiq | El1an | NickelBack | Krad | Forester | mir |
| North American Qualifier | |||||
| Evil Geniuses | PwnAlone | ben1337 | djay | Jonji | viz |
| Oceanic Qualifier | |||||
| Vertex ESC | pz | BRACE | malta | ADDICT | BL1TZ |
| Asian Qualifier | |||||
| Wings Up Gaming | lan | gas | ChildKing | MarT1n | B1NGO |
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