THUNDER dOWNUNDER adds second seasonal ECL Cup in dominating fashion

Major reps THUNDER dOWNUNDER have taken home their second ESL Challenger League OCE Cup with tonight's 2-0 (13-7, 13-5) win over Ground Zero, but both teams will head to Asia's regional final for a single spot at ESL Pro League later in May.

TdU extended their win streak over Ground Zero to nine series with the win, in which GZ managed just 12 rounds across the two-mapper. Tyson "asap" Paterson (1.37 HLTV rating, 31-17) led the way for TdU, but it was a team effort getting them over the line against a GZ squad undergoing a mini-rebuild.

TdU was pushed by surprise packet Abyssal in their upper-bracket semi-final, but outside of the single map loss the Cologne Major reps were flawless as they charged forward for their latest OCE title.

• Read more: THUNDER dOWNUNDER completes Brisbane back-to-back to secure Cologne Major spot

For GZ's part, they too dropped just one map entering the grand final, also against Abyssal, in their lower bracket bout. GZ reverse-swept Abyssal after they claimed Mirage 13-11, but things may have looked different if Abyssal were at full strength — tournament stat leader Sharvesh "dangeR" Saravanan was unavailable for the lower-bracket final.

With two ECL Cup wins, TdU take a top seed spot at the ECL Asia-Pacific Regional Final on May 25. Fellow OCE reps SemperFi (Cup 2) and GZ (Cup 3) will also be in attendance at the online event, with Chinese squads Morningstar and FengDa Gaming also locking spots at the qualifier.

TYLOO will play NEXVOID for the final spot at the regional event, where just one Asia-Pacific team will win the right to rep the region at ESL Pro League Season 24 in Katowice in October.