ATK overpower Party Astronauts to claim final EPL Relegation spot
Following a close 2-1 series against Party Astronauts, Season 31 has come to an end with South African squad ATK claiming the final spot in EPL Relegation.
The series between ATK and Party Astronauts started off on Overpass with Party Astronauts hitting the ground running as they started off with a 3-0 lead on their T-side. Following this, ATK were quick to answer back claiming four out of the next five rounds to tie things up 4-4. Ben "ben1337" Smith and co. managed to shift the half back in their favor after this as they picked up five more rounds to close out the half with a slight 9-6 lead.
Upon switching sides, ATK answered back with four T-side rounds of their own to take the lead 10-9. Their lead was short-lived however as Party Astronauts rebounded to claim seven out of the next eight rounds to close out Overpass 16-11. During Overpass, IGL ben1337 led the way for his team with 28 kills and 107.9 ADR.
Moving onto Vertigo, Party Astronauts started the map off by claiming the opening seven rounds in a row on their T-side. Following this, ATK would manage to mount a surprisingly sturdy CT-side defense on the T-sided map as they claimed the next eight rounds in a row to end the half with a one round lead.
Not to be upstaged, once the two teams switched sides Party Astronauts took the first half five rounds of the second half after winning the opening pistol. After this though, ATK found their footing on their T-side and absolutely dominated, claiming eight out of the next ten rounds to deny Party Astronauts the 2-0 with a 16-14 scoreline. Veteran South African player Robby "blackpoisoN" Da Loca helped push his team over the edge with a 1.28 rating.
After two very competitive maps, Dust II ended up being a far quicker affair as ATK dominated Party Astronauts with a potent CT-side that saw the team end the half up 12-3. Switching sides, Party Astronauts managed to win the opening pistol and the following eco round though any of a comeback was quickly dashed as ATK found the next four rounds in a row to close the map 16-5 and secure the 2-1 victory.
With their victory ATK have claimed their spot in EPL relegation where they will be off against INTZ, Lazarus, Envy, and the loser of FURIA v Singularity to claim one of three spots in EPL.
Party AstronautsATK| Party Astronauts |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ian 'motm' Hardy |
63 - 59 | +4 | 85.8 | 71.8% | 1.24 |
| Robert 'robby' Brown |
54 - 54 | +0 | 78.4 | 76.9% | 1.08 |
| Ben 'ben1337' Smith |
50 - 60 | -10 | 71.4 | 69.2% | 1.04 |
| Josh 'PwnAlone' Pigue |
52 - 50 | +2 | 69.0 | 70.5% | 1.01 |
| Brenden 'stellar' McGrath |
51 - 57 | -6 | 70.2 | 67.9% | 0.97 |
| ATK |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Roberto 'blackpoisoN' Dall'Occo |
58 - 55 | +3 | 80.3 | 71.8% | 1.12 |
| Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou |
65 - 56 | +9 | 78.3 | 74.4% | 1.12 |
 Tyson 'TenZ' Ngo |
59 - 53 | +6 | 75.7 | 70.5% | 1.07 |
| Dominic 'Domsterr' Sampaio |
54 - 48 | +6 | 73.8 | 66.7% | 1.05 |
| Rhys 'Fadey' Armstrong |
44 - 59 | -15 | 74.8 | 76.9% | 1.00 |
Additionally, With the North American portion of MDL coming to an end, the complete team list for the Global Challenge is:
 Sprout |
 Vitality |
| Broken inline Spirit |  FURIA |
| Singularity |
ATK |
| Party Astronauts |
 Chiefs |
The MDL Season 31 Global Challenge is set to be begin on July 13th at the Mavericks Gaming Training Facility in Dallas, Texas.
