ECL S52 Cup 3 Day 1 recap: DETONATE sweep EMPIRE, Iowa Stormboar outlast Wanted Goons
The third cup of ESL Challenger League Season 52 has kicked off with seven matchups as only 15 accepted invites to the online tournament .
Dust2.us8 Oct 2026 · 1 min read
Top-ranked Chicken Coop (on the seeding date of September 7th) were thus given a bye into the second round of the upper bracket. The first round of matches gave no big shocks, as the higher-ranked teams consistently came out on top.
DETONATE bested EMPIRE to earn a spot in the upper bracket second round, where they will face top-seed Chicken Coop. Wanted Goons was the closest series of the night, as all three maps were needed, with Stormboar narrowly winning map three 13-11.
Also read: ECL S52 Cup 3 invites revealed with only 15 of 16 spots filled, what happened? DETONATE 2-0 EMPIRE With a spot in the second round v.
Chicken Coop on the line, EMPIRE came out firing on the tougher T-side of Nuke, their map pick. The North Americans jumped ahead to a 5-1 lead and taking a 7-5 edge into the second half.
It was a T-side masterclass from DETONATE, though, in the second period. They only gave up a single round to win the map 13-8 and snatch away EMPIRE's pick. The second map was a back-and-forth affair in the first half of DETONATE's Cache pick.
With the scores knotted at 6-6 at halftime, DETONATE pulled away in the second half again to win 13-9 and secure the 2-0 sweep.
