00NATION officially out of ESL Challengers Valencia

00NATION suffer yet another setback by losing the decider game at ESL Challengers Valencia to Sprout. The Brazilian team, led by the two-time major champion duo of Epitácio “TACO” de Melo and Marcelo “coldzera” David, is officially eliminated from the event.

After undergoing a long spell of adjustments, 00NATION came into the ESL with great hopes. Prior to the tournament, the Brazilian squad acquired the core team of GODSENT and their support staff in order to perform better at the event. However, rather than being a stunning comeback story, their debut turned out to be another heartbreaking disaster. At first, the team remained cold in the opening match against Outsiders and even eliminated FURIA. However, with this loss, they are out of ESL Challengers Valencia.

Sprout vs. 00NATION

The series began on Overpass, with Sprout dominating the opening round. The squad used the early advantage to increase their lead to 8:0 by winning eight straight rounds. Even though 00NATION ended the bloodshed by winning round nine, Sprout promptly retaliated and won three more rounds.

Sprout’s offensive play was led by Laurentiu “lauNX” Tarlea, who helped the team enter the second half with a massive 11:4 lead. 00NATION broke their slump by taking three consecutive rounds thanks to a stellar performance by Eduardo “dumau” Wolkmer. He posted a K/D/A of 20/14/2 with an average damage per round of 75.9. His efforts, however, failed to elevate his team to victory as lauNX and Timo “Spiidi” Richter stepped forward for Sprout and took three more rounds. 00NATION won only one more round before the duo sealed the match with a 16:8 victory.

With Sprout up 1:0, the series moved to the Overpass. 00NATION was hoping to make a comeback, but Sprout’s swift victory in ten straight rounds immediately shattered their hopes. The ferocious assault of Spiidi and Victor “Staehr” Staehr seemed to have no counterattack from 00NATION. Sprout won four more rounds to end the map and the series before 00NATION could mount any sort of a comeback.

While only recording 10 deaths during the entire game, Spiidi managed to kill 26 opponents while dealing 127.2 damage every round on average. He received excellent support from Sprout’s talented player Staehr, who recorded a KDA of 20/10/3. The rest of the 00NATION’s team appeared ineffective and couldn’t even achieve double-digit kills, but dumau stood out as a lone warrior for 00NATION with his superior fragging abilities.

With this heartbreaking loss, the journey of 00NATION’s new-formed lineup in their debut tournament is officially over. However, the team is preparing for the upcoming IEM Cologne, where they will take on Astralis on July 5 in their opening play-in game.

Header: DreamHack