AZIO and lmfao advance to ECS Challenger Cup
The second qualifier for the ECS Season 6 Challenger Cup has come to a close, seeing AZIO and lmfao advance to the final stage. They are joined by compLexity, who were relegated to play in the Season 6 Challenger Cup after placing 10th last season, as well as the two teams that advanced from the first qualifier in Bravado and Gorilla Gang.
The day was set to kick off with the quarterfinal matches as usual, but only a trio of matches were played in the end as lmfao were awarded a forfeit win due to Alexander "retrQ" Kadan being auto-picked as the FACEIT captain and failing to show up to the match for blitz.
The first two quarterfinals that actually got played were more or less one-sided affairs — ETHEREAL secured a firm 2-0 over Blight despite Jimmy "Nurfed" McFadden's best efforts to keep the series competitive, and Fam143 took Vision to 3 maps only to get completely wiped out on the series decider of Mirage.
ETHEREALBlight| ETHEREAL |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Lonnie 'mizoo' Tran |
46 - 26 | +20 | 95.0 | 90.0% | 1.54 |
| Dennison 'fdeN' Fong |
49 - 27 | +22 | 92.8 | 82.0% | 1.50 |
| David 'Toy' Han |
40 - 30 | +10 | 88.7 | 76.0% | 1.34 |
| Alec 'Acrim' Holland |
40 - 30 | +10 | 78.9 | 76.0% | 1.23 |
| Jin 'Jindoke' Park |
36 - 35 | +1 | 87.6 | 72.0% | 1.15 |
| Blight |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jimmy 'Nurfed' McFadden |
49 - 34 | +15 | 97.7 | 68.0% | 1.34 |
| Ryan 'Church' Church |
30 - 46 | -16 | 75.6 | 64.0% | 0.78 |
| Andy 'devastation' Parr |
23 - 43 | -20 | 52.3 | 60.0% | 0.64 |
| Yan 'PRDTR' Davtian |
24 - 46 | -22 | 52.1 | 50.0% | 0.63 |
| Joel 'jcrueL' Cruel |
22 - 43 | -21 | 55.8 | 56.0% | 0.63 |
VisionFam143| Vision |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ricky 'floppy' Kemery |
55 - 37 | +18 | 98.5 | 82.8% | 1.39 |
| Alex 'aproto' Protopapas |
45 - 41 | +4 | 78.1 | 71.9% | 1.14 |
| Jake 'kaboose' McDonald |
43 - 44 | -1 | 68.8 | 71.9% | 1.05 |
 Andy 'vSa' Xu |
47 - 40 | +7 | 76.4 | 70.3% | 1.04 |
| Gabe 'Spongey' Greiner |
48 - 40 | +8 | 75.7 | 68.8% | 1.04 |
| Fam143 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| William 'shonk' Kittrell |
58 - 44 | +14 | 87.0 | 78.1% | 1.30 |
| Caleb 'jchancE' Davis |
43 - 53 | -10 | 73.0 | 59.4% | 0.93 |
| Ahsan 'draek' Ismailzadah |
37 - 48 | -11 | 74.2 | 64.1% | 0.91 |
| Justin 'NEX' McLellan |
39 - 47 | -8 | 62.0 | 70.3% | 0.90 |
| Alex 'lanhero' Suarez |
25 - 47 | -22 | 52.2 | 67.2% | 0.69 |
AZIO took on the former BlackOut roster, who were playing under the tag "cantwinalan" and fielding Mitch "m1tch" Semago in place of Jonathan "Jonji" Carey, in the final quarterfinal matchup. It was AZIO who emerged victorious from the matchup after reverse-sweeping the series, falling on BlackOut's pick of Inferno before grabbing Nuke (16-11) and Overpass (16-12) for themselves.
AZIOcantwinalan| AZIO |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gage 'Infinite' Green |
65 - 56 | +9 | 88.3 | 74.7% | 1.21 |
| Logan 'Voltage' Long |
62 - 56 | +6 | 81.5 | 72.3% | 1.18 |
| Ryan 'Snakes' Amann |
62 - 58 | +4 | 79.9 | 75.9% | 1.15 |
| Trevor 'FrostayK' Bandle |
49 - 58 | -9 | 71.3 | 67.5% | 0.95 |
| Michael 'Grim' Wince |
53 - 54 | -1 | 56.8 | 67.5% | 0.90 |
| cantwinalan |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chad 'Oderus' Miller |
66 - 55 | +11 | 83.2 | 69.9% | 1.28 |
| Mitch 'mitch' Semago |
58 - 51 | +7 | 73.9 | 77.1% | 1.10 |
| Collin 'wrath' McSweegan |
55 - 62 | -7 | 75.3 | 69.9% | 0.98 |
| Sebastian 'seb' Bucki |
52 - 61 | -9 | 72.6 | 71.1% | 0.94 |
| Connor 'CONNOR93' Glover |
50 - 62 | -12 | 63.5 | 67.5% | 0.89 |
Ian "motm" Hardy's lmfao mix came out on top in the first semifinal matchup of the night, taking down ETHEREAL 2-0 on Inferno (16-13) and Mirage (16-6). It was the man of the match himself who pulled lmfao over the line on Inferno after a strong T side half, and with Austin "RenZ" Dickman stepping up on Mirage, the two players were able to combine for a quick series finish.
lmfaoETHEREAL| lmfao |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ian 'motm' Hardy |
48 - 28 | +20 | 86.1 | 72.5% | 1.45 |
| Austin 'RenZ' Dickman |
44 - 33 | +11 | 95.0 | 80.4% | 1.40 |
| Anthony 'Nervous' Boring |
40 - 27 | +13 | 80.4 | 70.6% | 1.26 |
| Kevin '4pack' Przypasniak |
32 - 32 | +0 | 71.1 | 76.5% | 1.13 |
 Marcos 'tacitus' Castilho |
27 - 34 | -7 | 62.8 | 74.5% | 0.91 |
| ETHEREAL |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dennison 'fdeN' Fong |
41 - 36 | +5 | 78.9 | 72.5% | 1.19 |
| David 'Toy' Han |
31 - 37 | -6 | 78.9 | 60.8% | 0.92 |
| Alec 'Acrim' Holland |
28 - 38 | -10 | 64.2 | 66.7% | 0.86 |
| Lonnie 'mizoo' Tran |
31 - 39 | -8 | 67.0 | 56.9% | 0.84 |
| Jin 'Jindoke' Park |
23 - 41 | -18 | 60.5 | 64.7% | 0.73 |
The second semifinal of the night saw Vision up against AZIO, with the latter side grabbing a 2-0 victory on Inferno (16-13) and Nuke (16-9) to move on to the Challenger Cup. Although Vision seemed set to make the series a competitive one with a hot 10-5 start on the T side of Inferno, the trio of Logan "Voltage" Long, Ryan "Snakes" Amann, and Gage "Infinite" Green combined to give up only three rounds on their own T side to take Vision's map pick 16-13.
AZIO didn't let up on the T side of Nuke as constant pressure to Vision's CT economy kept the match close, leaving Infinite and co. trailing by only one round at the half. Once the sides swapped, Vision stood no chance — although they managed to win a second round force buy, AZIO immediately replied back and left Vision with only that single round on the board for a 16-9 second map win.
AZIOVision| AZIO |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryan 'Snakes' Amann |
49 - 37 | +12 | 92.8 | 75.9% | 1.44 |
| Gage 'Infinite' Green |
48 - 34 | +14 | 100.7 | 87.0% | 1.43 |
| Michael 'Grim' Wince |
37 - 31 | +6 | 71.4 | 83.3% | 1.20 |
| Logan 'Voltage' Long |
38 - 30 | +8 | 69.3 | 77.8% | 1.14 |
| Trevor 'FrostayK' Bandle |
32 - 29 | +3 | 70.6 | 75.9% | 1.11 |
| Vision |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jake 'kaboose' McDonald |
43 - 40 | +3 | 81.4 | 70.4% | 1.13 |
| Ricky 'floppy' Kemery |
29 - 40 | -11 | 77.2 | 74.1% | 0.95 |
| Gabe 'Spongey' Greiner |
31 - 41 | -10 | 70.8 | 72.2% | 0.86 |
| Andy 'vSa' Xu |
31 - 38 | -7 | 56.2 | 59.3% | 0.81 |
| Alex 'aproto' Protopapas |
27 - 45 | -18 | 60.3 | 66.7% | 0.78 |
The team list for the ECS Season 6 Challenger Cup now looks as follows:
 compLexity |
Invite |
| Invite |
Invite |
 Bravado |
Gorilla Gang |
| AZIO |
lmfao |
Although the recipients of the trio of invite slots are currently unknown, it is likely that both MIBR and oNe will be given the chance to qualify for the FACEIT-run league. The ECS Season 6 Challenger Cup is set to kick off on September 27th, with the final three teams likely to be announced in the coming days. As always, you can find a list of upcoming events and signup links on the Dust2.us Calendar page.
