ESL Challenger Melbourne features eight teams vying for a chance to play ESL Pro League Season 18 in a small LAN in the land down under.
Standing head and shoulders above the rest are Bad News Eagles and Complexity. These two teams were assigned 3.50 and 3.75 odds respectively by online bookie bet365 to win the tournament outright.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: April 5th, 9:00 P.M. (EST)
The Bad News Eagles have been in and out of big events and have become a formidable team right at the top of the tier 2 scene. However, after over-performing during the Rio Major as underdogs, eliminating the Counter Strike titans Faze Clan in the process, the team has yet to make another strong run. They currently sit outside HLTV’s Top 30 rankings as they have not really gotten themselves into a big event since Brazil’s sole major.
While the team has significant placements in online competitions, they have been disappointed plenty of times in losing CCT tournaments as second placers on three separate occasions. It seems like the team cannot get over the hump and has been struggling to take it to the next level. However, with the lower level of competition in Melbourne, the Bad News Eagles have a chance to win it all and join one of the biggest tournaments in the Counter Strike cycle.
North American staple organization Complexity will be attending as one of the two representatives of the region together with EG Black. Complexity is currently sitting at #13 in the HLTV rankings. After finding some form thanks to the addition of Hallzerk who manned the AWPer role, the team bombed out in the recently concluded ESL Pro League Season 17 as they failed to make it to the playoffs.
Before that, the team notably finished 7th-8th during IEM Katowice. The team was just three rounds away from a playoff spot against Outsiders. During their run, they beat strong teams such as Mouz, Fnatic, and even took a game off of Heroic in Vertigo, which was at the time, one of the better maps for the Danish squad.
As for the dark horses of the tournament, home team Greyhound and Chinese team Rare Atom proved themselves to be quite strong during their respective ESL Pro League runs. The Australian team won not only against Coldzera’s 00Nation, they also took down Ninjas in Pyjamas. Meanwhile, Rare Atom won a map against Navi and even won against Liquid 2-0. While both failed to make the playoffs, they have exceeded expectations and will look to carry that out and attend the next season of Pro League.
Will there be another Cinderella run? Or will the Bad News Eagles finally book their ticket to attend a big event?
