EG.PA qualify for ESL Challenger Melbourne
EG.PA traversed a long road through the ESL Challenger Melbourne Closed Qualifier, but with big wins over Gaimin Gladiators and ATK, the team have now qualified for Melbourne. With those victories in hand the team have secured North American representation at the Australian event in September.
EG.PA had a mixed start to their closed qualifier campaign, besting oNe with relative ease on the first day before falling to ATK without putting up much of a fight. This unfortunate loss to the international squad sent Evil Geniuses packing to the lower bracket heading into the second day of play.
Their journey in the second day of the qualifier started against Gaimin Gladiators, where in a three-game series the Blueprint roster was able to overcome their competition. The victory, led by heroics from Josh "PwnAlone" Pigue started on Inferno which went to a nail-biting double overtime, where the Gladiators came out on top 22-18.
Unfortunately for Gaimin, their first map victory took all their energy as the rest of the game slipped away from them. They were able to keep Mirage close with a final scoreline of 16-13, but when it came to the decider of Dust2 they had nothing left in the tank. On Dust2, Jeorge 'jeorgesnorts' Endicott attempted to keep the Gladiators in the fight, but nothing could be done as they were dominated. The extra help from Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz was not enough, as Evil Geniuses swept the map 16-5 to secure a rematch in the final against ATK.
EG WhiteGaimin Gladiators| EG White |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Josh 'PwnAlone' Pigue |
80 - 57 | +23 | 87.2 | 77.8% | 1.32 |
 Jonathan 'Jonji' Carey |
75 - 68 | +7 | 94.4 | 75.6% | 1.24 |
| Wesley 'viz' Harris |
64 - 50 | +14 | 74.5 | 76.7% | 1.18 |
| Jonathan 'djay' Dallal |
70 - 58 | +12 | 77.7 | 75.6% | 1.11 |
| Ben 'ben1337' Smith |
52 - 56 | -4 | 68.5 | 73.3% | 1.02 |
| Gaimin Gladiators |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| David 'cynic' Polster |
71 - 66 | +5 | 81.7 | 70.0% | 1.13 |
| Brendan 'Bwills' Williams |
61 - 66 | -5 | 72.2 | 66.7% | 0.95 |
| Jeorge 'Jeorge' Endicott |
59 - 68 | -9 | 73.3 | 63.3% | 0.93 |
| Carson 'nosraC' O'Reilly |
57 - 70 | -13 | 73.6 | 62.2% | 0.92 |
| Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz |
39 - 73 | -34 | 58.6 | 65.6% | 0.71 |
Against Gaimin Gladiators, EG.PA struggled to dominate in the first map, but that was not the case against ATK as they got off to a flying start on their opponent's pick of Vertigo. Despite beating them handily the day before, ATK could do nothing to stop the onslaught of EG players as they took Vertigo 16-11.
The second map wasn't as easy off the bat, with ATK going up 9-6 at the half on Overpass, but again everything clicked for Ben "ben1337" Smith and the squad as they only allowed their opposition to put up one round in the second half. A great performance from Wesley "viz" Harris secured EG.PA a 16-10 victory on the map, locking in their spot at ESL Challenger Melbourne 2022.
ATKEG White| ATK |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ian 'motm' Hardy |
40 - 40 | +0 | 86.1 | 75.5% | 1.08 |
 Rhys 'Fadey' Armstrong |
43 - 42 | +1 | 83.2 | 67.9% | 1.07 |
 Jonathan 'b0denmaster' Bodenmalm |
34 - 38 | -4 | 77.9 | 71.7% | 1.06 |
| Michael 'Swisher' Schmid |
35 - 42 | -7 | 65.6 | 64.2% | 0.82 |
| Gareth 'MisteM' Ries |
25 - 35 | -10 | 58.0 | 66.0% | 0.80 |
| EG White |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wesley 'viz' Harris |
50 - 27 | +23 | 82.4 | 77.4% | 1.32 |
| Ben 'ben1337' Smith |
44 - 35 | +9 | 83.0 | 75.5% | 1.27 |
| Josh 'PwnAlone' Pigue |
36 - 33 | +3 | 76.6 | 79.2% | 1.22 |
| Jonathan 'Jonji' Carey |
36 - 45 | -9 | 79.1 | 77.4% | 1.00 |
| Jonathan 'djay' Dallal |
31 - 37 | -6 | 74.0 | 67.9% | 0.94 |
With this victory in hand, EG.PA are now scheduled to head to Australia to compete in ESL Challenger Melbourne 2022 against other qualified teams such as Wings up, VERTEX, and Entropiq. The event down under is set to run from September 2nd through September 4th.
