ESL Challenger League S49 Playoffs begin tonight

The ESL Challenger League playoffs will commence this evening, with two matches in the upper bracket and two matches in the lower bracket.

The ten teams that qualified for the playoffs are fighting for first place, which comes with a $25,000 prize and qualification to ESL Pro League Season 22.

The matchups are as follows:

BLUEJAYS v. NRG

In one of the two upper bracket matchups, the fourth-seeded BLUEJAYS will take on the fifth-seeded NRG. These two teams finished the regular season with 20-8 and 19-9 records, respectively. They faced off all the way back in January, when BLUEJAYS were still known as BOSS, and split their double best-of-one. BOSS won 16-14 on Anubis while NRG took Mirage 13-3. The winner of this game will move on to play against Getting Info in the upper semi-finals.

Nouns v. Vagrants

Nouns and Vagrants make up the second upper bracket match, finishing in third and sixth in the regular season. Nouns boasted a record of 21-7 while Vagrants went 16-12. In their previous matchup, Nouns won 13-8 on Ancient and 16-14 on Dust2. The winner of this match will face LFO 4.

Party Astronauts v. Akimbo

Party Astronauts face Akimbo in the first of two lower bracket matches. Party Astronauts narrowly missed out on an upper bracket berth, finishing in seventh, while Akimbo barely made the playoffs, coming in tenth place. PA went 14-14 in the season while Akimbo were 11-17. Party Astronauts defeated Akimbo 13-8 and 13-6 on Ancient and Mirage back in January. The winner of this game will take on the loser of Nouns v. Vagrants, while the loser will go home.

Legacy v. Marsborne

In the final matchup, eighth-placed Legacy are playing ninth-placed Marsborne. Legacy will be seen as favorites as they won the majority of matches that they actually played, but forfeited many due to being in South America. Both teams enter the playoffs with a 14-14 record. Legacy previously defeated Marsborne 13-8 on Anubis and 13-9 on Ancient. The winner here will take on the loser of NRG v. BLUEJAYS, and the loser will once again be sent packing.

All four matches are set to begin tonight at 09:00PM.