ESL Challenger Katowice 2023 day 1 results

Day 1 of ESL Challenger Katowice 2023 finished with some very interesting results.

So far, the favorites have managed to prove their strength in the face of little-known but very determined opposition.

Group A results

In group A, Virtus.pro and ENCE were successful in the opening matches. In the subsequent clash that followed, VP won in overtime: 17-19. The battle between the two strongest teams in the group had superstar players on both sides.

For ENCE, Pavle “Maden” Boskovic and Guy “NertZ” Iluz had very good K-D scores: 26-24 and 25-24 respectively. But the other three players didn’t do so great. In particular, Pawel “dycha” Dycha had a really bad game: 12-26. His performance ended up costing ENCE the match.

Group B results

In group B, FORZE Esports proved to be stronger than ECSTATIC and 9z, defeating both of them and qualifying for the playoffs. This was fully expected, given the huge skill difference between FORZE and the rest of the participants in this group.

The match against ECSTATIC ended 12-16. ECSTATIC had the potential to win and were far ahead of FORZE after the first half, which ended 10-5. But on the second half, FORZE won nearly every single round.

Everyone on their roster had a major contribution to the team’s success. Meanwhile, ECSTATIC were carried by only two players, who weren’t strong enough to compensate for all the small failures of their teammates.

 

Unfortunately we say goodbye to @paiNGamingBR after their defeat in the Lower Bracket.

We’re sure they’ll be back to bringing the Pain in no time 💪💪#ESLChallenger pic.twitter.com/OsK0om3R6s

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) June 9, 2023

In this group, the elimination match was already played. ECSTATIC sent paiN Gaming home with a quick 2-0 victory: 16-12 on Overpass and 16-8 on Vertigo.

The K-D difference between ECSTATIC’s best player, Tobias “kraghen” Jensen, and the team’s worst player in this match, Jonas “Queenix” Dideriksen, was enormous: 46-30 versus 28-32. Luckily for ECSTATIC, paiN didn’t do very well in this match. This allowed them to play their usual game and win quite easily.

It will be interesting to see what ECSTATIC can do against 9z, a team that has a lot of potential and is currently ranked 29^th globally. The two of them will meet on the second day of the tournament and there’s no clear favorite. ECSTATIC are currently ranked 30^th globally.

The only thing that makes them slightly favored is the fact that their entire roster is Danish. Everyone knows that the Danes are exceptionally good at CS:GO. It remains to be seen if they can prove it against this South American opponent.

Header: ESL