Movistar Riders win ESL Challenger Melbourne 2023

Movistar Riders win ESL Challenger Melbourne 2023 without dropping a single map, securing a spot in the ESL Pro League 18. With every other map going to overtime in the decider in Bo3s, Movistar Riders were the only team to put up 2-0 in a Bo3 at the tournament, not once but twice with both of them being in the playoffs.

MRS showcased a bold veto picking Anubis and removing Mirage, a map on which MRS have been more than comfortable. alex, the in-game leader of MRS has been awarded the tournament MVP with a HLTV rating of 1.30 across 6 maps.

alex's calling was on point throughout the tournament

The grand finals started on Anubis where BNE took 7 rounds on their T-side to finish the half at an even 7-8. In the 2nd half however, alex called a meticulous T-side for MRS, off the back of which they strung up 7 consecutive rounds, and closed out the map 10-16 in a dominant fashion. alex finished the map with an impressive HLTV rating of 1.45.

Going into Ancient, BNE were brilliant towards the end of the first half, even carrying over the momentum to the beginning of the 2nd half but unfortunately, no further than that. alex once again showed superior T-side calling, with Martinez putting his AWP to good use.

Whenever there was a gap in BNE's defense, MRS would be right there, making them pay. Martinez's aggressive and dynamic AWP on the T-side only worsened things for BNE, as MRS went on to win 9 out of the last 11 regulation rounds and inevitably close out Ancient 13:16, taking the series, 2-0. Martinez finished with a HLTV rating of 1.20 on Ancient.

Martinez stole the show on Ancient with his T-side AWP

juanflatroo and rigoN could not replicate the brilliance from their previous matches. They did however find their footing towards the end but it was too late and went on to hurt BNE in a big way.

ESL Challenger Melbourne 2023

Bo3

Bad News Eagles

0 - 2

Movistar Riders

All maps

Bad News Eagles	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating 2.0
Sener 'SENER1' Mahmuti	42 - 39	+3	93.8	67.3%	1.15
Flatron 'juanflatroo' Halimi	32 - 39	-7	71.1	65.5%	0.89
Genc 'gxx-' Kolgeci	32 - 29	+3	49.7	70.9%	0.89
Rigon 'rigoN' Gashi	33 - 40	-7	63.9	61.8%	0.85
Dionis 'sinnopsyy' Budeci	32 - 47	-15	71.4	67.3%	0.76

Movistar Riders	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating 2.0
Alejandro 'alex' Masanet	45 - 33	+12	88.4	70.9%	1.29
Antonio 'MartinezSa' Martinez	42 - 26	+16	67.0	69.1%	1.23
Alejandro 'mopoz' Fernández-Quejo Cano	42 - 44	-2	80.3	74.5%	1.14
David 'dav1g' Granado Bermudo	33 - 36	-3	76.0	69.1%	1.07
Pere 'sausol' Solsona Saumell	32 - 36	-4	63.7	70.9%	0.94