ESL Challenger Melbourne CQ begins tonight with G3 following Rocket DQ

ESL Challenger Melbourne is slated for late April with the final NA slot decided over the next two days in the ESL Challenger Melbourne 2024 North American Closed Qualifier. Two invited teams, Party Astronauts and NRG, will take on two challengers from the Open Qualifiers, Mythic and G3, for a single spot at the Australian event.

As some may know, Rocket was scheduled to take part of this event, however, Rocket's Damian "EMIYA" Boulware was banned on FACEIT earlier today due to cheating. With the ban transferring from FACEIT to ESL events, EMIYA, and thus Rocket, are disqualified from ESL Challenger League Season 47 and the ESL Challenger Melbourne Closed Qualifier. Taking Rocket's place is G3, the team that Rocket defeated in the semi-finals of the Open Qualifier to reach this stage.

As Graham "messioso" Pitt noted below, teams participating in ESL Pro League Season 19 are unable to compete at ESL Challenger Melbourne due to time constraints, which is why Liquid, Complexity, BOSS, and M80 are not participating in the qualifier.

Tonight, Party Astronauts face G3 in their opening BO3 while Mythic take on NRG on the other side of the bracket at 05:30PM. The lower and upper finals will also play out today with the consolidation final and grand final to decide the winner tomorrow.