cantwinalan live up to their name, eliminated in day 1 of Global Challenge
The first day of ESEA MDL Global Challenge Season 29 has concluded, seeing Vireo.pro, Singularity, and Swole Patrol through to day 2. cantwinalan have exited in 7-8th after playing the only best-of-three elimination match of the day, falling to Vireo.pro 2-0 (16-12 Mirage, 16-11 Overpass).
Vireo.pro were sent down to the elimination match early in the day, suffering a 9-16 loss in their opening matchup against 3DMAX. It wasn't long before they were matched up against cantwinalan in the Group A elimination match, with Jack "xCeeD" Holiman and co. falling to Kinguin 7-16 in their own first matchup.
Swole Patrol seemed set to be the first North American team to claim a win at the event as they put up an 8-1 scoreline on Overpass to kick off their matchup against Grayhound, but the Australians were quick to counter and kept Swole Patrol at bay to narrowly edge out the map 16-13.
It was Victor "food" Wong and Cameron "hydrex" Kern who were the first to step up and help put a win on the board for North America, dominating Virtus.pro on Inferno 16-5 with food ending the map 29-9 with a 2.35 rating, averaging 145 damage per round. hydrex wasn't far behind with a 27-5 scoreline, and the two combined to ensure a swift victory for Singularity.
Virtus.proSingularity| Virtus.pro |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Piotr 'morelz' Taterka |
13 - 18 | -5 | 76.1 | 57.1% | 0.85 |
| Filip 'NEO' Kubski |
11 - 20 | -9 | 71.5 | 61.9% | 0.70 |
| Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' Jarząbkowski |
10 - 18 | -8 | 54.8 | 57.1% | 0.64 |
| Michał 'MICHU' Müller |
9 - 18 | -9 | 58.0 | 47.6% | 0.59 |
| Michał 'snatchie' Rudzki |
7 - 20 | -13 | 41.4 | 57.1% | 0.52 |
| Singularity |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Victor 'food' Wong |
29 - 9 | +20 | 144.8 | 90.5% | 2.35 |
| Cameron 'cam' Kern |
27 - 5 | +22 | 113.8 | 90.5% | 1.94 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
15 - 10 | +5 | 70.0 | 85.7% | 1.21 |
| Ryan 'ryann' Welsh |
12 - 10 | +2 | 73.9 | 76.2% | 1.02 |
| Anthony 'vanity' Malaspina |
11 - 16 | -5 | 57.0 | 66.7% | 0.80 |
The duo were unable to maintain their peek performance as they went up against Grayhound in the Group B winners' matchup, initially starting out 5-0 on Nuke only to fall 12-16 by the hands of Erdenetsogt "erkaSt" Gantulga and Christopher "dexter" Nong.
The final match of the day saw Vireo.pro eliminate fellow North Americans cantwinalan, dispatching of the team in two maps. On Mirage cantwinalan were able to string together five rounds towards the start of the map, but managed only a single additional round before Vireo.pro took a 9-6 half lead. The same result occured in the second half, with xCeeD's side taking the first five rounds of the half before Vireo.pro took control and gave up only a single round for a 16-12 map win.
Overpass was pure CT domination as Vireo.pro took over the first half, allowing cantwinalan just a single T side round and putting up 14 of their own. Despite the one-sided scoreline, cantwinalan still battled back in the second half on their own CT side, managing to put up a total of 11 rounds before Vireo.pro closed out the match 16-11 for the 2-0 series win.
Vireo.procantwinalan| Vireo.pro |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Josh 'PwnAlone' Pigue |
47 - 26 | +21 | 77.8 | 80.0% | 1.41 |
| Brenden 'stellar' McGrath |
38 - 26 | +12 | 82.2 | 83.6% | 1.34 |
| Ricky 'floppy' Kemery |
43 - 33 | +10 | 93.1 | 76.4% | 1.29 |
| Rustun 'Rustun' Lusk |
40 - 33 | +7 | 79.7 | 69.1% | 1.13 |
| Robert 'robby' Brown |
41 - 35 | +6 | 79.7 | 70.9% | 1.09 |
| cantwinalan |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Connor 'CONNOR93' Glover |
38 - 37 | +1 | 69.7 | 63.6% | 1.02 |
| Ryan 'GRAMPZ' Baber |
30 - 44 | -14 | 69.2 | 61.8% | 0.77 |
| Sebastian 'seb' Bucki |
29 - 44 | -15 | 64.0 | 56.4% | 0.74 |
| Jack 'xCeeD' Holiman |
26 - 41 | -15 | 55.7 | 63.6% | 0.70 |
| Mitch 'mitch' Semago |
30 - 45 | -15 | 63.6 | 58.2% | 0.68 |
With 3DMAX and Grayhound topping Groups A and B, respectively, just two spots in the semifinals remain. As cantwinalan have already been eliminated, Vireo.pro will have a chance to secure one of the spots in their matchup against Kinguin tomorrow, set to kick off at 2:30 PM EST. Swole Patrol have a slightly longer road if they hope to make the semis as they'll first have to take on Virtus.pro in the Group B elimination match to kick off the day at 11 AM EST, before going on to face Singularity in the group decider around 6 PM EST.
