The ESL Challenger League Season 52 Cup 3 has crowned its first grand finalist as Chicken Coop dominated Zomblers with a decisive 2-0 sweep. The losing side now drops to the lower bracket where they'll face Overtake Sector, with the victor earning a rematch against Chicken Coop in Wednesday's grand finals.
The opening map Ancient saw competitive early rounds with Zomblers showing promise on their offensive plays against Chicken Coop's solid defense. However, the tides turned dramatically in the latter half when Chicken Coop's terrorist side took complete control, closing out their opponent's map selection 13-5.
Nuke followed a similar pattern with tight opening rounds giving way to Chicken Coop's overwhelming dominance after the side switch. Despite Nikolaos 'Pose1doNN' Antoniou's impressive individual performances—posting 18 eliminations on Ancient and 21 on Nuke—his efforts couldn't prevent Zomblers from sliding into the lower bracket. They suffered an identical 5-13 scoreline on Nuke, mirroring their Ancient defeat.
In other action from the day, Overtake Sector eliminated Iowa Stormboar with a clean 2-0 result, setting up tonight's crucial lower bracket clash against Zomblers. The winner will earn the right to challenge Chicken Coop for the Cup 3 championship.
