MIBR move past Carpe Diem to claim EPL Conference spot
ECL Season 40 has come to a close, seeing Brazilian side MIBR secure a 3-1 victory in the grand final over Carpe Diem. This victory, coming at the tail end of a very strong season for MIBR, sees the team now slated to play in the ESL Pro League Season 16 Conference, which begins in mid-June.
Heading into this season's grand final, Carpe Diem found themselves fighting an uphill battle for a variety of reasons. The team was coming in from the lower bracket, meaning their opponent MIBR already had a 1-0 map advantage in the BO5. Additionally, MIBR was an incredibly formidable opponent even without the map advantage, as the team finished the regular season with a perfect 7-0 record, only dropping a single map on the way to playoffs. The two squads met earlier in the playoffs, in the upper bracket semi-final where MIBR trounced Carpe Diem 2-0, setting up a revenge match between the two teams.
The series kicked off on Carpe Diem's pick of Inferno, where, despite some success early on in the first half, the Americans found themselves in the back seat as MIBR marched on to post a 10-5 lead on their CT-side. Their momentum carried over into the second half, as MIBR claimed four of the first five rounds to put themselves in striking distance of closing the game out with a 14-6 scoreline. At this point, Carpe Diem mounted a massive comeback effort, eventually bringing the score to 14-12, before MIBR regained their composure to finally close out the game 16-13, putting themselves 2-0 up in the series.
Faced with the daunting prospect of having to pull off the reverse sweep, it seemed difficult to imagine that Carpe Diem would be able to muster a solid showing on MIBR's pick of Dust2. But, Anthony "CLASIA" Kearney had other plans, posting a stellar 1.95 CT-side rating to spearhead an 11-4 first half for Carpe Diem. The Americans picked up the second pistol round, but MIBR quickly answered back with five of the next six rounds to start a comeback effort of their own. In the end, Carpe Diem did not allow Dust2 to get as close as Inferno did, as they found their footing to steal away MIBR's pick 16-9 to keep themselves alive in the series.
MIBR got off to a strong start on Carpe Diem's second pick of Overpass, beginning the first half with a runaway 7-0 lead. Carpe Diem managed three rounds of their own to try to keep things close, but MIBR were undeterred as they secured four of the next five rounds to finish the half 11-4. With MIBR securing the second pistol and the subsequent two rounds, it seemed like Carpe Diem's chances of staying alive were rapidly approaching nil. With their backs to the wall, Carpe Diem strung together five rounds to try and close the gap, but with MIBR already so close to victory there was little that could be done as MIBR scraped together the last two rounds they needed to finish the map 16-11, taking the series 3-1.
MIBRCarpe Diem| MIBR |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Marcelo 'chelo' Cespedes |
73 - 55 | +18 | 87.4 | 77.8% | 1.32 |
| Matheus 'Tuurtle' Anhaia |
57 - 51 | +6 | 75.3 | 75.3% | 1.14 |
| Adriano 'WOOD7' Cerato |
53 - 43 | +10 | 71.4 | 77.8% | 1.13 |
| Raphael 'exit' Lacerda |
51 - 44 | +7 | 74.7 | 71.6% | 1.10 |
| Jhonatan 'JOTA' Willian |
47 - 45 | +2 | 73.8 | 76.5% | 1.01 |
| Carpe Diem |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Anthony 'CLASIA' Kearney |
56 - 52 | +4 | 79.0 | 67.9% | 1.08 |
 Jadan 'HexT' Postma |
45 - 56 | -11 | 62.4 | 70.4% | 0.95 |
| Connor 'chop' Sullivan |
50 - 63 | -13 | 72.0 | 66.7% | 0.90 |
| Jerric 'wiz' Jiang |
48 - 53 | -5 | 60.7 | 61.7% | 0.89 |
| Colby 'Walco' Walsh |
37 - 58 | -21 | 57.0 | 58.0% | 0.76 |
The final standings of the ECL Season 40 playoffs are:
1. MIBR (chelo, exit, WOOD7, Tuurtle, JOTA) - $20,000 & EPL Season 16 Conference Spot
2. Carpe Diem (Walco, wiz, HexT, chop, CLASIA, Coach: Axed) - $11,500
3. paiN (PKL, NEKIZ, hardzao, biguzera, nython, Coach: rikz) - $7,000
4. Strife (aris, stamina, J0LZ, SLIGHT, D4rtyMontana, Coach: crisby) - $4,000
5-6. Gaimin Gladiators (Jazzpimp, nosraC, jeorgesnorts, cynic, XotiC) - $2,500
5-6. 
ATK (MisteM, Fadey, motm, b0denmaster, truth, Coach: sprayxd) -$2,500
7-8. Party Astronauts (djay, ben1337, PwnAlone, Jonji, viz, Coach: Muenster) - $1,250
7-8. Orgless (daps, Bwills, Swisher, Minus, koosta) - $1,250
The next season of ECL, Season 41, is set to start on April 25th.
