China's Rare Atom secured a spot in the Conference stage of ESL Pro League Season 17 by winning the ESL Challenger League Grand Final in their region. To do so, it needed to beat one of the region's leading teams – , Mongolia's IHC.
The ESL Challenger Asia-Pacific finals are played in a best-of-5 format, but Rare Atom, led by Jo «advent» Liang, came into the finals with a one-card advantage thanks to the fact that it had not suffered a single loss in the playoffs. On their way to the finals, the Chinese team beat Born in Mongolia, ARAVT and IHC. However, the latter still made it to the grand finals via the lower grid of the tournament, and as a result ICH and Rare Atom met for the second time, now on five cards.
The Mongolian team started this match quite impressively, winning Ancient with a score of 16 – 0, but they were unable to hold on to the lead. Mirage and Overpass were left for Rare Atom, and the winner was thus decided. Since the end of March, Rare Atom has won eleven matches out of twelve played at various tournaments.
Rare Atom has qualified for the Conference stage for the second time in a row, but last season it had to give way to TYLOO due to visa problems. The team will now have to demonstrate their level at ESL Challenger Valencia in early July.