Outsiders beat ENCE to win ESL Challenger Rotterdam

Outsiders secured the ESL Challenger Rotterdam trophy after defeating ENCE in the final with a 2-0 scoreline, winning Dust2 (16-8) and Vertigo (16-14) to walk home with a paycheck of $50,000, as well as a guaranteed spot in ESL Pro League Season 17 Conference.

The Russian side had their struggles in the group stage, losing a close 14-16 game to ENCE and winning two incredibly-close games against Fluxo. Their playoff run was more convincing, as they dispatched of MOUZ and beat ENCE to lift their second ESL Challenger trophy of the year, having previously won ESL Challenger February 2022.

For ENCE, this is yet another disappointing loss in a grand final, with Marco “⁠Snappi⁠” Pfeiffer‘s team now losing their third of the year. The European combine now turn their focus to the Rio Major, where they will be starting in the Legends stage on November 5.

The final got started on Outsiders‘ pick of Dust2 and saw the CIS squad take the first pistol flawlessly, but Valdemar “⁠valde⁠” Bjørn Vangså‘s triple-kill on the B site got ENCE back on even footing straight away. The European mixture took an early lead, with Outsiders staying true to their reputation and grinding back to a 6-6 score. After neither team was able to string more than two rounds together, Outsiders finally took control of proceedings to close out the half 9-6.

Once the sides switched, the Dzhami “⁠Jame⁠” Ali-led team kept their momentum from the previous few rounds to get the pistol and convert it to a 12-6 lead. They looked dominant on their CT side, with Petr “⁠fame⁠” Bolyshev shining in particular, defending the B site against several pushes from the offense as he put up 146 ADR in the second half to move the series to ENCE‘s map pick of Vertigo.

ENCE won their first pistol of the series to start off Vertigo, getting up to a 2-0 lead in the process. They began to struggle after the first few rounds against a strong Outsiders defense, as the CIS squad embarked on a seven-round streak. A quick rush with pistols netted the European combine their third, but Outsiders quickly got back to winning ways to set the score at 11-4.

A second pistol round win meant Outsiders had one hand on the trophy, but ENCE didn’t go down easy. Snappi provided a huge quad-kill to start his team’s comeback, with the European team putting together a seven-round streak to get within touching distance. Outsiders answered back with two rounds of their own to stop the momentum somewhat, giving themselves four match points. They needed all four of them, with Alexey “⁠Qikert⁠” Golubev coming up huge with a quad-kill in the final round to win his team the game.

The final ESL Challenger Rotterdam 2022 standings are:

1. Outsiders – $50,000 & ESL Pro League Season 17 Conference spot
2. ENCE – $20,000
3-4. Eternal Fire – $10,000
3-4. MOUZ – $10,000
5-6. Fluxo – $3,000
5-6. Movistar Riders – $3,000
7-8. Nixuh – $2,000
7-8. TeamOne – $2,000