With Season 8 of Challenger League starting this week, we saw teams from both the North American and European regions begin their fight for the title of Challenger League champions and the automatic promotion into the Pro League.
The first week of the EU Challenger League saw stand out games from both Team Empire and the previous seasonal champions ENCE Esports as they both secured two victories in two games.
Team Empire, previously seen at this years’ Six Invitational under the name ROOM FACTORY, defeated both T3H Esports and 3DMAX with relative ease despite T3H's recent additions of PARAA and Hungry to the roster. The two ex-Pro League players failed to make up for the sheer fragging power of Scyther who went 14-4 in just eight rounds.
ENCE Esports also played both 3DMAX and T3H Esports in much closer games. Both maps went to the full ten rounds, and despite back and forth rounds against 3DMAX and a 1v4 clutch by aRanioN, ENCE managed to close out both games 6-4.
The full results, as seen below, also saw a surprise performance by the Polish team of TrainHard eSports as they gained 4 points after their first two games:
- ENCE eSports v 3DMAX (6-4)
- Team Empire v T3H Esports (6-2)
- TrainHard eSports v OverTime eSports (6-4)
- EnD Gaming v DeathroW (5-5)
- Team Empire v 3DMAX (6-1)
- ENCE eSports v T3H Esports (6-4)
- EnD Gaming v OverTime eSports (6-2)
- TrainHard eSports v Deathrow (5-5)
The North American Challenger League meanwhile saw a surprise showing from The Nomads as well as a dominating performance by Disrupt Gaming.
The Nomads had a difficult first game against Elephant Gang, a team made up of 4 ex-Pro League players, nevertheless Nomads, after going down 2-4 in the early stages of the match, completed a huge comeback to win the game after a bold jump out by Tomas swung the momentum in their favour.
Disrupt Gaming, meanwhile, found themselves playing against many of their old teammates in Excelerate Gaming, with many of the players having played together in Seasons 6 and 7 of Challenger League. Despite the possible familiarity with each other's playstyle, Disrupt never lost control of the match; nine kills in six rounds from Gotcha including a 4k on match point ended the game in the first 6-0 in Challenger League this season.
The full results also included The Nomads defeating Goober Squad to become the only NA team to win both their opening matches:
- Goober Squad v Miner Esports (5-5)
- The Nomads v Elephant Gang (6-4)
- Team SiNister v FLAWLESS GG (6-3)
- Disrupt Gaming v Excelerate Gaming (6-0)
- The Nomads v Goober Squad (6-3)
- Elephant Gang v Miner Esports (6-4)
- Excelerate Gaming v FLAWLESS GG (5-5)
- Team SiNister v Disrupt Gaming (5-5)
Next week’s games have more big matches as both Team Empire and ENCE Esports play the ex-Pro League team of DeathroW on Monday, while in North America both Nomads and SiNister will be hoping to keep their unbeaten record intact when they play each other on Thursday. Be sure to catch all of the action on our official Twitch channel, and for more news and real-time updates be sure to follow us on Twitter.
