Nicholas Taifalos

November 19, 2019

Grayhound Gaming overcame ORDER, The Chiefs Esports Club and Avant Gaming with relative ease at last week’s ESL Pro League Season 10 Oceania Qualifier and will compete at the EPL Finals in Odense, Denmark in early December.



In a week fuelled by drama over clashing event dates between Zowie’s eXTREMESLAND LAN in Shanghai and ESL’s EPL qualifiers, the Hounds managed to finish the qualifier without a map loss. This allowed them to book their second straight EPL Finals showing after a successful run to Montpelier in June 2019.

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With both Grayhound & ORDER scoring 2-0 wins over The Chiefs and Avant Gaming during the opening two days, the stage was set for their day three match up with the winner of the series securing the Oceanic slot in Odense.



ORDER looked to capitalise on GH’s Dust2 pick after claiming the pistol & anti-eco but it was GH who found an early lead on their T side, stringing together four straight rounds. ORDER adapted quickly and would hold a heavy 10-5 lead following an 8-1 finish at the half, thanks to performances from USTILO (28-19, 1.40 rating) and aliStair (26-20, 1.26 rating).



Grayhound were a different beast on their CT side, rocketing straight back to 10-10 following five straight before ORDER broke the deadlock, but dexter (25-19, 1.46 rating) and INS (26-19, 1.37 rating) ensured they wouldn’t hold on for long. ORDER would manage just one bomb plant on their T side as the Hounds finished the map strongly in an 11-3 CT run, claiming the map 16-13.



ORDER’s T side on their Inferno pick began well, with four bomb plants in the opening six rounds keeping their income high at 5-1 but once again Grayhound adjusted their CT holds thanks to DickStacy (21-10, 1.60 rating) managing multiple multi-kill B holds.



Dexter (25-12, 1.72 rating) and Sico (20-5, 1.77 rating) lifted on defence to see GH through a 9-0 CT run to lead 10-5 before putting ORDER to the sword on their own map pick, going six straight on their T side with no trouble at all to finish the series 16-5 & 2-0, locking in the Odense qualification.





EPL Oceania S10 Day 1:

Grayhound 2-0 Chiefs (16-4 Nuke, 16-11 Dust2)

ORDER 2-0 Avant (16-9 Miirage, 16-12 Inferno)





EPL Oceania S10 Day 2:

Grayhound 2-0 Avant (16-5 Overpass, 16-12 Mirage)

ORDER 2-0 Chiefs (16-3 Nuke, 16-12 Inferno)





EPL Oceania S10 Day 3:

Chiefs 2-1 Avant (8-16 Dust2, 16-13 Nuke, 16-13 Mirage)

Grayhound 2-0 ORDER (16-13 Dust2, 16-5 Inferno)





Grayhound will represent the APAC region with Chinese squad TYLOO and alongside expatriates 100 Thieves in Odense on December 3 with plenty to play for – the event winner will net a major share of the $600,000 USD prize pool as well as a guaranteed invitation to IEM Katowice 2020 in late February.

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Above: Joshua "INS" Potter of Grayhound Gaming (credit)

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Keep up to date with Grayhound’s road to Odense via Twitter & stay in touch with ESL Pro League news via ESL & ESL Counter-Strike, also on Twitter.

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