ESL ANZ Champs Season 16: Rooster, Sunday School look to secure early playoffs spot in Stage 2

Grayhound and Vertex await the two teams who will advance out of Stage 2 into the playoffs where a slot to Pro League Season 18 is up for grabs. DXA and Stirlz’s Angels are already out of the running, but six more teams can still pull it off.

• Rooster and Sunday School yet to lose map in Stage 2
• DXA, Stirlz’s Angels out of ANZ Champs
• The final two playoff spots are up for grabs

Stage 2 of ANZ Champs Season 16 is well and truly underway with Rooster and Sunday School out to an early lead. On the other side of the coin, DXA and Stirlz’s Angels have found themselves eliminated from this season in equal last.

The coming week will not only see which teams make their way out of Stage 2 but by Sunday’s close, we’ll have our winner of ANZ Champs Season 16 winner, with the playoffs immediately kicking off following Stage 2’s conclusion.

The winner of Rooster versus Sunday School will find themselves in the playoffs, while it’s currently do-or-die in the lower bracket with e-LEMON-ators, Antic, The Big Dogs, and Mindfreak all fighting for their tournament life.

With Encore replaced due to an inability to field a roster, Antic and Mindfreak will potentially be able to fight their way into the playoffs over one of the squads that have tried and already failed once in Stage 1 of ANZ Champs.

Whoever is able to make it through will have to face either Vertex or Grayhound who were the two squads who did manage to qualify via the previous stage.

Grayhound has seen a lot of international play over the past few months, with appearances at the BLAST Paris Major, IEM Dallas, and DreamHack Melbourne. Although the ‘Hounds results were a bit of a mixed bag, will they still be able to outclass the domestic scene or will the exhaustion of travel and a busy schedule catch up to them?

While all the Stage 2 action has been unfolding and Grayhound have been overseas, we haven’t seen much of Vertex who may look to use the element of surprise heading into the playoffs.

We’re covering everything ESL ANZ Champs S16: streams, results, and more.

ESL ANZ Champs Season 16 Streams

Be sure not to miss any ANZ Champs action and watch live on Twitch. You can see all the action, or catch up on any matches you miss via the ESL Australia Twitch channel.

ESL ANZ Champs Season 16 Schedule & Results

ESL ANZ Champs Season 16 features two stages and both are double-elimination brackets, with all matches being Bo3. In Stage 1, the top two squads advance directly to playoffs and the next six teams will proceed to Stage 2.

Stage 2 will introduce two more teams following a last-chance qualifier and once again, only the top two teams will advance from this stage and round out the playoff bracket.

ESL ANZ Champs Season 16 — Stage 2 Schedule & Results

ESL ANZ Champs Season 16 — Stage 1 Schedule & Results

ESL ANZ Champs Season 16 Rosters

Moving into Stage 2, three new squads entered the tournament via the Last Chance Qualifier.

DXA, Mindfreak, and Antic were the three teams added to ANZ Champs for Stage 2, filling the two additional slots and replacing the slot left by Encore’s departure from the event.

In terms of rosters that have seen some changes and players who have shuffled around, Rooster certainly looks poised to do damage with ADK and TjP coming into the squad for Rackem and dangeR.

Another notable move includes SaVage and damyo to e-LEMON-ators, replacing yourwombat and nauh. To fill damyo’s spot, The Big Dogs have brought in Omichella while also adding nauh to replace Jry.

Vertex and Grayhound remain unchanged and have the luxury of skipping Stage 2, having already qualified for the playoffs via performances in Stage 1.