The Brazilian derby went the way of Epitacio "⁠TACO⁠" de Melo's men at the end of a hard-fought three-map series.

The grand final of the ESL Challenger Valencia NA Closed Qualifier saw two Brazilian squads in paiN and GODSENT face off against each other for the chance to compete at ESL Challenger Valencia in July. Both teams gave it their all, and in the end it was GODSENT that completed the series reverse sweep and emerged victorious, 2-1.

paiN and GODSENT had different journeys to the final, as paiN made their way through the upper bracket, convincingly defeating TeamOne, and claiming victory in a back-and-forth three-map series against ATK in the process.

Meanwhile, GODSENT were trumped by Gareth "⁠MisteM⁠" Ries' side in the opening round, having to go through TeamOne in the lower bracket final before eventually getting their revenge on ATK in a 2-0 sweep in the consolidation final, ultimately setting up a decider against paiN.

GODSENT bounced back from a slow first map to clinch the series

paiN kicked off Ancient by taking an early 6-1 lead over GODSENT behind some exceptional fragging across the board, with Gabriel "⁠nython⁠" Lino's eight kills leading the way. GODSENT garnered back-to-back rounds as their opponents weren't able to stop their fast advances into site, however it would be a small glimpse of hope in an otherwise dominant CT side from Vinicios "⁠PKL⁠" Coelho's men as paiN cruised to an 11-4 lead at halftime. Coming out of the break, GODSENT secured the first two rounds, but from there it was all paiN who never let their foot off the gas and took home Ancient, 16-6.

Similar to the first map, it was paiN who got the advantage on Vertigo, going up 5-0 off the back of PKL's nine kills to open the map. Not allowing their opponents to pull ahead even further, GODSENT went on a tear and completely erased paiN's advantage, winning the last ten rounds of the half through their lockdown defense to grant them a 10-5 lead at the switch.

After swapping sides, paiN secured pistol and the two succeeding rounds, making good use of their weapon advantage over TACO and company. GODSENT converted their first gun round in the 19th, accompanied by a 1vs3 clutch from Bruno "⁠latto⁠" Rebelatto in the 20th which further extended their lead to 12-8. paiN's lack of map control proved to be their downfall on Vertigo, as GODSENT took the second map 16-9 for themselves to force a decider on Inferno.

latto and dumau both dropped 23 kills on Vertigo

GODSENT drew first blood on Inferno by constantly finding the bomb site and breaking through paiN's defenses as they sat on a comfortable 5-0 advantage early. Gabriel "⁠NEKIZ⁠" Schenato and the rest of his team started to come back into the game in a similar fashion to GODSENT a map ago by securing five out of the next six rounds to reduce their deficit to just one. TACO's squad weren't going to let their lead slip, however, as they rallied together and ended the first half on a four-round spree, up 10-5 after 15 rounds.

Picking up where they left off, GODSENT took the first three rounds of the second period as they increased their lead to 13-5. Never wavering, paiN threw everything they had at TACO's side, even scoring two rounds of their own in the process. No matter how much they tried, their efforts were too little, too late as GODSENT wasted no time in closing out the final map of the series, capping off the reverse sweep and booking their place in Valencia.

ESL Challenger Valencia 2022 North America Closed QualifierBest of 3 paiNMatchpage 1 2 28th May 2022 GODSENT 16Ancient 6 9Vertigo 16 7Inferno 16

paiN	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Vinicios 'PKL' CoelhoPKL	46 - 44	+2	76.9	1.13
Gabriel 'NEKIZ' SchenatoNEKIZ	42 - 48	-6	69.7	1.00
Wesley 'hardzao' Lopeshardzao	48 - 50	-2	78.9	0.97
Rodrigo 'biguzera' Bittencourtbiguzera	34 - 48	-14	63.7	0.88
Gabriel 'nython' Linonython	43 - 46	-3	55.2	0.82

GODSENT	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Bruno 'latto' Rebelattolatto	54 - 42	+12	76.1	1.22
Eduardo 'dumau' Wolkmerdumau	47 - 40	+7	81.1	1.19
Bruno 'b4rtiN' Câmarab4rtiN	55 - 43	+12	75.2	1.15
Henrique 'HEN1' TelesHEN1	45 - 46	-1	80.6	1.08
Epitacio 'TACO' de MeloTACO	33 - 43	-10	49.6	0.82

The complete team list for ESL Challenger Valencia is as follows:

FURIA
Outsiders
HUMMER
Sprout Movistar Riders
MIBR
Rare Atom
GODSENT Vinicios 'PKL' Coelho Age: 27 Team: paiN Rating 1.0: 0.97 Maps played: 1136 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.67 Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo Age: 27 Team: GODSENT Rating 1.0: 0.92 Maps played: 1391 KPR: 0.61 DPR: 0.65 Bruno 'latto' Rebelatto Age: 19 Team: GODSENT Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 352 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.64 MIBR #22 Marcelo 'chelo' CespedesRaphael 'exit' LacerdaMatheus 'Tuurtle' AnhaiaJhonatan 'JOTA' WillianBreno 'brnz4n' Poletto Rare Atom #64 Zhuo 'advent' LiangAndrew 'kaze' KhongYi 'JamYoung' YangJingxiang 'Mercury' WangQianhao 'Moseyuh' Chen Outsiders #14 Evgenii 'FL1T' LebedevAlexey 'Qikert' GolubevDzhami 'Jame' Ali Gabriel 'NEKIZ' Schenato Age: 26 Team: paiN Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 971 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.68 Gareth 'MisteM' Ries Age: 20 Team: ATK Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 294 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.69 TeamOne #48 Pedro 'Maluk3' CamposVictor 'iDk' TorracaAlencar 'trk' RossatoMatheus 'pesadelo' PanissetEnzo 'xns' Henrique Movistar Riders #18 Alejandro 'alex' MasanetAlejandro 'mopoz' Fernández-Quejo CanoRaúl 'DeathZz' Jordán NietoÁlvaro 'SunPayus' GarcíaDavid 'dav1g' Granado Bermudo GODSENT #29 Epitacio 'TACO' de MeloHenrique 'HEN1' TelesEduardo 'dumau' WolkmerBruno 'b4rtiN' CâmaraBruno 'latto' Rebelatto Gabriel 'nython' Lino Age: 24 Team: paiN Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 502 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.65 ATK #59 Rhys 'Fadey' ArmstrongIan 'motm' HardyJonathan 'b0denmaster' BodenmalmMichael 'Swisher' SchmidGareth 'MisteM' Ries HUMMER #46 Caio 'zqkS' FonsecaGustavo 'SHOOWTiME' GonçalvesFelipe 'delboNi' DelboniDaniel 'danoco' MorgadoCristopher 'ckzao' Chalus Sprout #39 Rasmus 'raalz' SteensborgTimo 'Spiidi' RichterFritz 'slaxz-' DietrichVictor 'Staehr' StaehrLaurențiu 'lauNX' Țârlea FURIA #8 Andrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosKaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoRafael 'saffee' CostaAndré 'drop' Abreu paiN #26 Vinicios 'PKL' CoelhoGabriel 'NEKIZ' SchenatoWesley 'hardzao' LopesRodrigo 'biguzera' BittencourtGabriel 'nython' Lino