ECSTATIC qualify for ESL Challenger Katowice 2023

The Danish team, ECSTATIC, has qualified for the upcoming ESL Challenger Katowice 2023 after securing an extraordinary victory over BIG by 2-0 in the grand final of the closed qualifiers. As a result, ECSTATIC completes the lineup of eight teams that will fight for $50,000 in prize money and, most importantly, qualification for the upcoming ESL Pro League S18.

Now, the teams that will play the upcoming ESL Challenger Katowice 2023 will be:

• Virtus.pro
• ENCE
• forZe
• paiN Gaming
• ECSTATIC
• Party Astronauts
• 9z Team
• Bravado Gaming

ECSTATIC beat BIG 2-0

The Danish team scored an excellent victory over their German counterparts in the closed qualifiers by 2-0 to seal their ticket to the ESL Challenger Katowice 2023.

There is no doubt that the team worked hard for the victory. However, Marcus “maNkz” Kjeldsen led the team throughout the tournament. In addition, the team had to face strong regional teams, such as GODSENT, HOTU, and Movistar Riders, which they defeated with relative ease to become undefeated tournament champions.

These rivals are history because, starting June 9, they will have to face top-level rivals such as Virtus.pro, ENCE, and forZe, to seek a place in the next ESL Pro League S18.

ECSTATIC was directly invited to the ESL Challenger Katowice 2023 closed qualifiers. This was not in the team’s plans, as the invitees for these qualifiers were Team GamerLegion and Monte. However, these two teams were pleasantly surprised by going much further than expected at the last Paris Major. Finally, ECSTATIC took advantage of this golden opportunity to qualify for the ESL Challenger Katowice 2023.

ESL Challenger Katowice 2023 – Details

The ESL Challenger Katowice 2023 will be played from June 9 to 11, 2023, in Katowice, Poland, in a 100% LAN environment. The eight teams mentioned above will be divided into two groups of four and will have to fight in a GSL format. Recall that in this format, the first two matches are best-of-one (BO1), while the elimination or advancement matches are best-of-three (BO3).

The top two teams in each group advance to the tournament’s playoffs, where the tournament is played in Single Elimination format, and all matches are best of three (BO3).

As mentioned, this tournament has a prize pool of $100,000 and a direct ticket to the next ESL Pro League S18 to be played in August 2023.

ECSTATIC has never managed to win a CS:GO tournament in a LAN environment, and they come into this ESL Challenger Katowice 2023 with a lot of confidence. Also, with what was observed at the Paris Major, where Team GamerLegion, a Tier 2 team, played the grand final against Team Vitality, all teams have it in their minds that Tier 1 teams are not invincible.

This can be a double-edged sword because now, all Tier 1 teams will play every match as ruthlessly as possible to avoid being caught in the big tournaments.

Header: ECSTATIC