ESL Challenger League S45: Apeks take revenge against Monte and qualify for Grand Finals

In a spectacularly high-level series, Apeks took revenge against Monte and took a reverse sweep victory to qualify for the ESL Challenger League S45 EU Grand Finals.

We say revenge because Monte had won the last two CCT WEU Series #3 and #4 finals against Apeks. So now, the guys from Apeks will have to face Team Spirit Academy in the tournament’s Grand Final. Also, we must remember that they have a map advantage after qualifying through the tournament’s Upper Bracket.

Let’s see what happened in the ESL Challenger League S45 EU Lower Bracket final match between Monte and Apeks.

Apeks apply reverse sweep to beat Monte and qualify for the tournament final

Undoubtedly, Apeks continues to prove that all the good results they have achieved in recent months are no coincidence. Now, they can win $20,000 in prize money and, most importantly, qualify for the ESL Pro League S18.

In the Lower Bracket final match, Apeks had to come from behind to complete a reverse sweep to take the win over Monte and qualify for the ESL Challenger League S45 Grand Final.

The series was played at Ancient (Apeks), Mirage (Monte), and Anubis (decider).

Ancient

It all started on Ancient, Apeks’ map pick, where we got a small taste of how hard-fought and tight this series would be between these two teams. Monte started the map well, winning five of the first six rounds on their CT side. Then, the Apeks boys managed to go ahead on the scoreboard 6-5 to finally end the first half with a tight score of 8-7 in Monte’s favor.

Then, in the second half, Monte could crack Apeks’ defense by the hand of Mohammad “BOROS” Malhas (101.8 ADR and 1.72 Rating) to take the win with an excellent 16-13.

Ancient goes the way of @Monte_Esports 16-12 as they take their opponents map pick.

We head into their map pick of Mirage#ESLChallengerLeague

📺 https://t.co/J1uicLL8p1 pic.twitter.com/9T74evsb8B

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) May 27, 2023

Mirage

Next, we move to Mirage, Monte’s map pick, where we witnessed an extraordinary comeback by the Apeks guys thanks to Tim “nawwk” Jonasson (113.1 ADR and 2.07 Rating).

Monte started the map well on their T-side with a partial first-half win by 9-6. However, at the change of sides, nawwk woke up and started to wreak havoc with Monte’s defense, which could not withstand these onslaughts and fell by a score of 13-16.

We’re going the distance as @apeksgg secure Mirage 16-13 👏👏#ESLChallengerLeague
📺 https://t.co/J1uicLL8p1 pic.twitter.com/7X1j7SifqJ

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) May 27, 2023

Anubis

Finally, Apeks and Monte gave us a spectacular match on Anubis, the decisive map, which had to be defined in four Overtime.

Apeks started with everything on their side, winning seven of the first eight rounds to ensure a balanced score in the first half. They then won two more rounds to take a partial 9-6 victory. However, in the second half, Monte had Viktor “sdy” Orudzhev and Sergiy “DemQQ” Demchenko as the main scorers to pull the score back and send the map to Overtime.

In the end, Apeks had the ability and determination to take the victory with a score of 22-20.

They’ve gone and done it, @apeksgg take Anubis 22-20 and the series 2-1

They go on to face @Team__Spirit Academy tomorrow! #ESLChallengerLeague pic.twitter.com/1XC9O2FiNy

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) May 27, 2023

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