The Eagles soar and The Panthers roar

A Kosovan Eagle soars over Brazil, A German mouse is riding on its back. Both avoided the Brazilian Black Panthers below them.

What we’re trying to say is BNE, MOUZ, and FURIA, along with Outsiders and BIG have made it out of the Challenger stage. And there are a lot of animal-themed team names.

The first to be legends crowned were Bad News Eagles and MOUZ. Both going 3-0 with style. On their respective run, MOUZ beat Outsiders and EG 16-6 and 16-10 to go into the BO3s.

There they had to win a European derby against Fnatic to qualify as legends as an answer after the first time asking. MOUZ went to Fnatic’s pick of Vertigo and stomped. xertioN put on a CT Vertigo masterclass that would make even the most hardened Vertiglobals blush.

But Fnatic weren’t gonna take it à la twisted sisters and smacked MOUZ back in the face, beating them back on Inferno 9-16. So it all came down to Ancient, both teams ready to put on a high-octane game of CS. But instead, MOUZ just walked over Fnatic again and took a relatively easy 16-9 victory, to secure Legends.

The Eagles had a hard task ahead of them, playing one of the home teams, 00NATION, in their opener. And yet the Kosovan outfit showed why they’re named after predators. Ravaging TACO and co without showing mercy in their 16:3 win. Against BIG though it all seemed lost, down 11:4 at half-time. ****

By god is that zonic’s law with a metal chair!!?

Yes, and it hit BIG on the head. BNE won 12 straight rounds on their CT side to take the map off of the dazed Germans and land in the 2-0 pool.

Their final bout was a BO3 against GamerLegion for the Legend status. A game that we dub the “Pick’Em Destroyer”. In the end, it was BNE who clinched the game, beating GL on Ancient and Mirage to be certain of a Legends spot.

BIG, FURIA, and Outsiders all made it through, going 3-1. BIG and Outsiders both lost against 3-0 finishers as mentioned above, whilst Furia lost to BIG in a ridiculously tight 16:19 win for the Germans. In terms of BO3s though, FURIA found themselves against upset machines GamerLegion. The machine error 404’d, however. Spurred on by the home crowd FURIA sealed the deal.

In the other deciders: Outsiders played Fnatic in two complete opposite maps. On the first map, Fnatic were embarrassed by Outsiders, only managing a single round in the 16-1 defeat, and yet on map two, it went all 30 rounds, ending in a 16-14 victory for the CIS team.

And BIG? Well, they once again took advantage of a lucky draw to beat the South American mix-team from 9z, to clinch yet another Legends ticket for themselves.