VERTEX qualify for ESL Challenger Melbourne

VERTEX beat Rooster 2-0 in the Oceania Closed Qualifier to secure a spot in their home event.

VERTEX won the ESL Challenger Melbourne Oceania Closed Qualifier and secured a slot at the event on their home soil. They join the invited Grayhound, who were granted the spot as the top team from Oceania, as the second team from the region set to compete at the upcoming tournament in Australia.

VERTEX will play in front of their fans in Melbourne

Liam "⁠malta⁠" Schembri and company managed the feat with a one-sided 2-0 victory over Rooster in the final match of the qualifying bracket as they didn't give up double digits on either map, 16-9 on Vertigo and 16-6 on Nuke. It was their second straight victory over Michael "⁠chelleos⁠" Hawkins's squad, a team they had previously bumped down the the lower bracket.

ESL Challenger Melbourne 2023 Oceania Closed QualifierBest of 3

VERTEX

Matchpage

2

0

19th March 2023

Rooster

16

Vertigo

9

16

Nuke

6

The tournament in Melbourne will run from April 28-30 featuring eight teams with $100,000 up for grabs in its second iteration. In 2022 it was paiN who won their first international title in a Brazilian grand final against Imperial. Both local sides that qualified in 2023, Grayhound and VERTEX, were at the event last year, finishing in 5-6th and 7-8th places respectively.

The ESL Challenger Melbourne team roster is now almost fully sorted following the qualifier victories in Europe by ECSTATIC and Asia by Rare Atom. Along with the four ranking invites to Complexity, IHC, Grayhound and Bad News Eagles, just the North American Closed Qualifier berth is still up for grabs.

The ESL Challenger Melbourne team list so far is:

Complexity
Grayhound
ECSTATIC
VERTEX

IHC
Bad News Eagles
Rare Atom
NA Qualifier