paiN win Brazilian final 2

Vinicios "⁠PKL⁠" Coelho and company denied Imperial revenge in the three-map grand final to win their first international title.

paiN defeated Imperial for a second time at ESL Challenger Melbourne in the best-of-three grand final to claim the title in Australia. The squad led by PKL lifted the hardware with a clean record in the tournament, winning two best-of-ones in the opening day of play and their two playoff series.

Imperial made their way to the final after bouncing back from a defeat at the hands of paiN in the Group B winners' match on Friday. Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo was in fantastic form as his team took out Grayhound in the group stage decider and Entropiq in the playoff semi-finals.

PKL finally got his hands on an international title with paiN

Imperial's 31-year-old leader, FalleN, ended up atop the stats leaderboard with a 1.25 rating in his 9 maps played on Australian soil. He was followed closely by the team's new acquisition, Marcelo "⁠chelo⁠" Cespedes, who ended with a 1.22 ahead of paiN's newcomers Felipe "⁠skullz⁠" Medeiros (1.21) and Romeu "⁠zevy⁠" Rocco (1.18).

Read more paiN starting five set with zevy and skullz

The grand final kicked off on Imperial's pick, Overpass, where both teams won nine rounds on the defending side and six on the attack in the thirty rounds of regulation. skullz was paiN's top-rated player with a 1.33 rating as they lifted their rivals' first map pick 19-17.

FalleN's AWP came alive in Nuke, where he downed 16 players players with the big green out of a total of 24 kills in 23 rounds. The veteran ended the map with a stunning 1.71 rating in Imperial's lopsided 16-7 victory on their compatriots' pick.

FalleN was the highest rated player of the tournament

It all came down to Dust2, the map paiN beat Imperial on in the group stage by an ample 16-5 scoreline to qualify for the playoffs. It wasn't as easy for Wesley "⁠hardzao⁠" Lopes and company this time around, needing 28 rounds to close it out, but they took it all the same.

paiN's powerful 9-0 start on the attack was countered with a late string of six rounds by Imperial to keep things close at the switch. Three rounds into the second half the map was even, but as the dust settled paiN found their groove on the defense to seal the map, match and DreamHack Open Melbourne title.

ESL Challenger Melbourne 2022Best of 3 ImperialMatchpage 1 2 4th September 2022 paiN 17Overpass 19 16Nuke 7 12Dust2 16

Imperial	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFalleN	64 - 51	+13	74.4	1.18
Marcelo 'chelo' Cespedeschelo	70 - 57	+13	78.7	1.16
Ricardo 'boltz' Prassboltz	52 - 54	-2	81.2	1.09
Fernando 'fer' Alvarengafer	56 - 56	0	71.9	1.01
Vinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoVINI	56 - 57	-1	72.9	1.00

paiN	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Rodrigo 'biguzera' Bittencourtbiguzera	63 - 57	+6	76.0	1.14
Felipe 'skullz' Medeirosskullz	61 - 56	+5	76.3	1.12
Romeu 'zevy' Roccozevy	57 - 63	-6	65.0	0.96
Wesley 'hardzao' Lopeshardzao	51 - 60	-9	61.7	0.94
Vinicios 'PKL' CoelhoPKL	43 - 63	-20	61.3	0.80

The final ESL Challenger Melbourne standings are:

1. paiN - $50,000 + EPL Season 17 Conference
2. Imperial - $20,000
3-4. Wings Up - $10,000
3-4. Entropiq - $10,000
5-6. Grayhound - $3,000
5-6. OG - $3,000
7-8. VERTEX - $2,000
7-8. EG White - $2,000

Imperial #29 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFernando 'fer' AlvarengaRicardo 'boltz' PrassMarcelo 'chelo' CespedesVinicius 'VINI' Figueiredo Vinicios 'PKL' Coelho Age: 28 Team: paiN Rating 1.0: 0.97 Maps played: 1179 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.67 Wings Up #67 Yi 'gas' DingLiu 'lan' QiXueBing 'B1NGO' DaiZhengjie 'Martin' ZhuoJunhao 'ChildKing' Peng Marcelo 'chelo' Cespedes Age: 24 Team: Imperial Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 924 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.66 Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo Age: 31 Team: Imperial Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 1590 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.60 EG White #57 Jonathan 'djay' DallalJonathan 'Jonji' CareyBen 'ben1337' SmithJosh 'PwnAlone' PigueWesley 'viz' Harris Romeu 'zevy' Rocco Age: 21 Team: paiN Rating 1.0: 1.14 Maps played: 249 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.62 OG #8 Nemanja 'nexa' IsakovićAdam 'NEOFRAG' ZouharShahar 'flameZ' ShushanAbdul 'degster' GasanovMaciej 'F1KU' Miklas Wesley 'hardzao' Lopes Age: 21 Team: paiN Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 723 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.62 VERTEX #108 Liam 'malta' SchembriToby 'BRACE' BarnesPeter 'BL1TZ' AthanasatosJordan 'pz' WhiteChristian 'ADDICT' Pendleton Felipe 'skullz' Medeiros Age: 20 Team: paiN Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 383 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.65 Entropiq #32 Nikolay 'mir' BityukovAleksei 'NickelBack' TrofimovVladislav 'Krad' KravchenkoAleksei 'El1an' GusevIgor 'Forester' Bezotecheskiy paiN #33 Vinicios 'PKL' CoelhoWesley 'hardzao' LopesRodrigo 'biguzera' BittencourtFelipe 'skullz' MedeirosRomeu 'zevy' Rocco Grayhound #44 Simon 'Sico' WilliamsJay 'Liazz' TregillgasAlistair 'aliStair' JohnstonJoshua 'INS' PotterDeclan 'Vexite' Portelli