- The Danes beat BIG 2-0 in the finals of the event’s qualifiers
- ESL Challengers Katowice is an important step in ECSTATIC’s strive for their first LAN prize
- The event will be held from June 9 to 11
ESL Challenger Katowice is a LAN CS:GO event for aspiring squads to prove themselves as world-class teams and ECSTATIC will be attending it after defeating the German organization BIG 2-0.
ECSTATIC Defeat BIG
Only a few weeks separate us from the ESL Challenger Katowice 2023 CS:GO tournament and teams from all around the world are busy duking it out to secure a spot in the event. One squad that has already done that is the Danish organization ECSTATIC which ensured themselves a berth at the LAN tournament after beating BIG 2-0 in the closed qualifier final.
ECSTATIC were directly invited to the closed stage alongside GODSENT as replacements for Monte and GamerLegion, who were busy making surprising strides at the BLAST Premier Paris Major. ECSTATIC used the opportunity they were given to beat teams such as HOTU, GODSENT, and Movistar Riders on their way to the qualifier’s finals and their match against BIG.
For their part, BIG also dominated several teams on their way to meet ECSTATIC. The German squad defeated the likes of Movistar Riders, DomiNation, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and GODSENT on the way to the final. However, even their status as favorites didn’t help them succeeded when it most mattered.
The game started on Anubis, where Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz's men quickly took the early lead and dominated their opponents in the first half. BIG continued their dominance when the sides switched, gaining a huge 14-8 lead. But as the game was close to finishing in the Germans’ favor, the Danes found new energy and clawed back in the game, not allowing BIG to score even a single round. ECSTATIC took Anubis right under BIG’s noses, ending the map with a 16-14 score.
It seems BIG could not recover from the shock that they lost the first map, despite having a large advantage and being so close to victory. This is evident by the fact that ECSTATIC held a small but important lead throughout the second map, Overpass, and eventually won it 16-11.
With them securing a berth for the ESL Challengers Katowice 2023, ECSTATIC become the fifth highest-ranked team scheduled to attend the event. This is an important step for the team’s efforts to get their first LAN trophy. The last time the Danish side qualified for an offline event was ESL Challenger Melbourne, where they finished in 3-4th place behind eventual winners Movistar Riders.
This is the complete list of participants in the ESL Challenger Katowice 2023:
- ENCE
- ECSTATIC
- Virtus.pro
- FORZE
- Party Astronauts
- 9z
- paiN
- Bravado
