Grading ECL Season 45 performances: Group A

With finals season and the regular season of ESL Challenger League wrapping up at the same time, what better way to recap teams' season performances than with a good old-fashioned report card? Team grades will be based upon overall placement in the season, and how each squad performed against their individual opponents.

Nouns (A+)

• Brendan "Bwills" Williams

• David "cynic" Polster

• Carson "nosraC" O'Reilly

• Christopher "cJ" Jones

• Edgar "MarKE" Maldonado

• Kory "SEMPHIS" Friesen (Coach)

If there's a team that deserves the highest grade of them all is Nouns. The team finished the group stage with a 6-0 record and only dropped a map against Mythic. Other than that, Nouns looked very comfortable, even managing to beat paiN 2-0 to start the season. Nouns now have every right to be considered favorites heading into playoffs, as the team can only find the biggest threats (paiN and MIBR) on the upper bracket final, if things go according to their plan.

paiN (B+)

• Rodrigo "biguzera" Bittencourt

• Wesley "hardzao" Lopes

• Felipe "skullz" Medeiros

• Romeu "z3vy" Rocco

• Gabriel "NEKIZ" Schenato

• Henrique "rikz" Waku (Coach)

Expectations were high for paiN, this season. After a 6-1 record during Season 44 with a loss against ATK, this was supposed to be their perfect run. It wasn't. The loss against Nouns is like a huge stain in a white shirt, even more noticeable when you know it was a 2-0 defeat. A map dropped against EG Black as well, shows this paiN team, despite being the next big thing from Brazil, still has a lot of work to do in the North American region.

EG Black (B)

• Colby "Walco" Walsh

• William "RUSH" Wierzba

• Jeorge "Jeorge" Endicott

• Paytyn "junior" Johnson

• Jadan "HexT"Postma

• Tommy "Axed" Ryan (Coach)

EG Black is that consistent team that you know it's going to be there no matter what, even if they are not the flashiest or strongest team. The only two hiccups were against Nouns and paiN, but other than that, EG Black looked very dominant over every other opponent, even with a 16-0 win on Ancient against Mythic. EG Black have the opportunity to make some damage in playoffs, but it will prove to be difficult as they will face Wildcard.

FLUFFY AIMERS (A-)

• Jason "Jason" Garcia

• Jaxon "Peeping" Cornwell

• Diego "sacrifice" Camacho

• Israel "LEARSI" Vargas

• Deni "dea" Ediev

• Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz (Coach)

FLUFFY AIMERS came from ESEA Advanced this season. This is the former 1JIN/1WIN core that placed third in ESEA Advanced Season 44. Coming from Advanced straight to Challenger League playoffs is a historic mark in itself. Naturally, the team lost to the previously mentioned teams and managed to beat the unmentioned ones. The team now has Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz as the coach, so let's see what the NA legend can do for them during playoffs.

Mythic (C)

• Erik "fl0m" Flom

• Austin "Cooper" Abadir

• Ryan "freakazoid" Abadir

• Nicholas "hate" Young

• Cooper "Trucklover86" Phelps

The mid grade for the mid team. In Portuguese, there's a saying that illustrates Mythic: never getting out of the crooked strain (unable to progress). In the past five seasons, one was spent in Advanced, two had the team fighting in Relegation, one had them in the playoffs because MIBR couldn't play, and the other had them placing fifth in the group, not playing playoffs neither Relegation. Once again, Mythic placed fifth, and are not going to playoffs neither Relegation.

timbermen (D+)

• Derek "dare" Brown

• Shane "shane" Dressler

• Wyatt "snav" Phillippi

• Tianyi "Fr3nk1e" He

• Dongfeng "Project90" Liu

A season after they made playoffs in a group with paiN, oNe, ATK, and Detonate (now Wildcard), timbermen, with the same core, have gone 1-5 in a group with very beatable teams like FLUFFY AIMERS, BHOP, and Mythic. The only win they could get this season was against BHOP, but even that one didn't convince anyone. This has been a lackluster season for a team that is lacking in the mental department. Not to say it's deserved, but they certainly had it coming.

BHOP (D+)

• Aidan "Feral" Wood

• Andrew "Andrew" Burrell

• Drew "Drewtheshrew" Lamb

• Mohamed "Penguin" Algadir

• Byron "mst" Masterson (Coach)

While it's disappointing to see BHOP go 0-6 in their group, the team managed to win maps against their direct competitors like timbermen, Mythic and FLUFFY AIMERS, and even have a close encounter with Nouns. The team came from Advanced and, despite showing some good signs, there's still a lot of room for improvement. Depending on the decision regarding LOS + oNe, BHOP might not be directly relegated to Advanced, having one more chance to show they belong to ESL Challenger League.

LOS + oNe (DNF)

• Alencar "trk" Rossato

• Mario "malbsMd"Samayoa

• Alexandre "kakaveL" Peres (Coach)

The grading has nothing to do with what was shown in the servers because nothing was. It's very sad to see a big name in the scene leaving like this, but LOS + oNe had no choice but to withdraw from the competition due to not having enough players to field after Pedro "⁠Maluk3⁠" Campos chose not to renew his contract, Victor "⁠iDk⁠" Torraca didn't have a chance to renew his contract, and Matheus "⁠pesadelo⁠" Panisset was benched. As Maluk3 said, "life is made of cycles and the moment to close this cycle has come".