As Challenger League nears its halfway point this season, we had some of the closest games yet starting with the European playday on Monday.
Europe (EU)
The biggest game of the week came on Monday as the two unbeaten teams in Europe, Team Empire and ENCE eSports were set to meet. Before this game, however, Empire met up against EnD Gaming in what many people expected to be a very one-sided contest. Unfortunately, the contest never actually took place as internet issues from the side of Empire forced a forfeit, handing them their first defeat of the season in a technical 0-6. Empire did, however, manage to earn three points from the day as they defeated ENCE eSports putting themselves back at the top of the European leaderboard.
The full results, as seen below, include a surprising showing from Overtime eSports who broke their losing streak to gain their first two victories of the season against the two fellow French teams 3DMAX and DeathroW.
ENCE eSports v TrainHard eSports (6-2)
EnD Gaming v Team Empire (W-L)
T3H Esports v DeathroW (5-5)
Overtime eSports v 3DMAX (6-4)
Team Empire v ENCE eSports (6-3)
TrainHard eSports v EnD Gaming (6-2)
Overtime eSports v DeathroW (6-2)
T3H Esports v 3DMAX (5-5)
North America (NA)
This week North America saw the most amount of draws in Challenger League to date as five out of eight games ended in a stalemate. This included perhaps the most important game of the day between Disrupt Gaming and The Nomads which ended 5-5 after an impressive comeback from 3-5. Excelerate Gaming, meanwhile, saw on themselves on the other side of a comeback, twice, as they let a 4-1 lead slip against both Elephant Gang and Team SiNister, with both games ending in a draw.
The full results saw Team SiNister, Disrupt Gaming and Elephant Gang achieving the only victories of the week, which has helped close the gap between these three teams and the league leaders of Nomads.
Miner Esports v FLAWLESS GG (5-5)
Disrupt Gaming v The Nomads (5-5)
Excelerate Gaming v Elephant Gang (5-5)
Team SiNister v Goober Squad (6-3)
Miner Esports v The Nomads (5-5)
Disrupt Gaming v FLAWLESS GG (6-2)
Elephant Gang v Goober Squad (6-2)
Excelerate Gaming v Team SiNister (5-5)
Latin America (LATAM)
Two of the top teams in the league also met in Latin America as ReD DevilS faced Guidance Gaming. As the only team yet to lose a game in LATAM, Guidance Gaming looked very strong going into the matchup, however, ReD DevilS were ready to meet them head on. Despite coming back from 4-1 struggle on map 1, Guidance Gaming eventually lost both games 4-6 and 3-6, leaving ReD DevilS free to jump above them in the standings to first place.
As the full results below show, both YeaH Gaming and WP Gaming achieved their first victories of the season this week, which will help them close the distance to 6th place Urban Assault, the team previously known as “N/A ORG TEAM”.
Cartel E-sports v Urban Assault (5-5, 5-5)
ReD DevilS e-Sports v Guidance Gaming (6-4, 6-3)
YeaH Gaming v Santos e-Sports (6-2, 3-6)
WP Gaming v 2Kill Gaming (6-4, 1-6)
Next week fans will see more important games as we reach the midpoint of the season. In North America, Elephant Gang faces their toughest week yet as they go head-to-head against both Team SiNister and The Nomads, the only two unbeaten teams in the league. Meanwhile, second-placed ENCE eSports will play the third and fourth placed challengers of EnD Gaming and 3DMAX. Finally, in Latin America, the seventh and eighth-placed teams of YeaH Gaming and WP Gaming will play off in what will be must-win games for both teams.
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