The remaining 2 playoff spots will be determined on Saturday.

FlyQuest overcame SAW to win its group.

The first day of ESL Challenger Atlanta ended with FlyQuest and BIG qualifying for the playoffs as the top teams, while ODDIK were eliminated after a Wildcard loss.

FlyQuest was the first team to advance past the group stage after besting two European teams. Christopher "⁠dexter⁠" Nong's team first destroyed BetBoom in the Dust2 opener, where Joshua "⁠INS⁠" Potter posted 185 ADR and a 2.64 rating, then they met SAW in the win.

The Portuguese team, ranked 16 places above FlyQuest in the world rankings, were predicted to win, with Jay "⁠Liazz⁠" Tregillgas humorously declaring that his team wanted revenge before the match. However, with a solid performance on the CT side of map Inferno, FlyQuest has secured their first playoff spot, and their opponent in the semi-finals will be either M80 or Wildcard.

In Group B, BIG easily advanced to the playoffs after two convincing victories. The German team defeated ODDIK 13-2 in the opening match of the Ancient map before facing M80, who had just won their NA match against Wildcard.

Elias "⁠s1n⁠" Stein and company were no match against BIG, as Florian "⁠syrsoN⁠" Rische had 21 kills to win 13-7, securing a playoff spot and allowing his team a day of rest before the playoffs get underway on Sunday.

In Group B, ODDIK were eliminated in last place after losing to Wildcard, the team used Sebastian "⁠fr3nd⁠" Kuśmierz to replace Love "⁠phzy⁠" Smidebrant due to visa issues, in a series of 2 maps (Nuke 5- 13, Ancient 10-13).