The ?? ??? ??Poles clinched a place in the event after a full-distance, best-of-five grand final.
9INE eked out a laborious 3-2 win against BLUEJAYS in the grand final of ESL Challenger League Season 42 Europe to earn themselves a $20,000 payday as well as a place at ESL Pro League Season 17 Conference.
At the ESL Pro League Season 17 prelude, 9INE will go toe-to-toe with the likes of Outsiders and ESL Challenger League Season 41 Europe victors Falcons, all vying for a shot at being one of the six teams who will secure a main event berth.
KEi put up a massive 1.43 rating in the best-of-five grand final 9INE were originally set to miss out on the playoffs altogether after their 1-2 record in Group C had them finish as the third seed. In the end, however, FORZE's withdrawal from the competition gifted the Poles a second chance, with the squad getting back in the server to try their hand at making it through the knockout stage.
Wiktor "?mynio?" Kruk and company were sent down to the lower bracket in the second round, suffering a lopsided 0-2 defeat at the hands of their eventual grand final opponents: BLUEJAYS. From there, the Polish roster staved off elimination three times, scoring wins over higher-rated teams like HEET, Bad News Eagles, and 1win, before eventually squaring off against the North Macedonians once again, suffering an automatic one-map disadvantage due to their lower-bracket run.
9INE's best-of-five rematch versus the North Macedonians was a far more arduous affair than their first meeting. The Poles initially dropped Mirage (17-19), before rebounding with victories on Vertigo (16-6) and Dust2 (16-14), before closing things out and completing the reverse sweep with a comfortable win on Overpass (16-7). Kamil "?KEi?" Pietkun was key in enabling his team to nab the top prize, averaging a 1.18 rating over the 24 maps played — a team high.
Read more Lynn Vision qualify for ESL Pro League Season 17 Conference The remaining slots in ESL Pro League Season 17 Conference will be filled by the winners of ESL Challenger League Season 42 North America, which currently has Nouns and ATK awaiting their grand final matchup, followed by the victors of several other national competitions from around Europe, Australia, and South America.
The teams currently qualified for ESL Pro League Season 17 Conference are:
Outsiders
ImperialpaiN
Lynn Vision
9INE 
Movistar Riders
FalconsRare Atom
Genk ESL Challenger League Season 42 EuropeBest of 5 
BLUEJAYS
Matchpage 2 3 23rd October 2022 
9INE 1Default 0 19Mirage 17 6Vertigo 16 14Dust2 16 8Overpass 16 | ?BLUEJAYS | K - D | +/- | ADR | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aleksandar 'CacaNito' KjulukoskiCacaNito | 88 - 77 | +11 | 86.6 | 1.18 |
| Jane 'aidKiT' ApostoloskiaidKiT | 81 - 69 | +12 | 74.7 | 1.16 |
| Damjan 'kyxsan' Stoilkovskikyxsan | 81 - 80 | +1 | 82.8 | 1.03 |
| Pavle 'stYleEeZ' StojanovskistYleEeZ | 63 - 76 | -13 | 63.8 | 0.83 |
| Daniel 'dan1' Gligorovdan1 | 48 - 87 | -39 | 52.2 | 0.66 |
| ?9INE | K - D | +/- | ADR | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kamil 'KEi' PietkunKEi | 102 - 68 | +34 | 91.1 | 1.43 |
| Kacper 'Kylar' WalukiewiczKylar | 79 - 71 | +8 | 74.9 | 1.09 |
| Grzegorz 'SZPERO' Dziama?ekSZPERO | 75 - 71 | +4 | 64.7 | 1.03 |
| Krzysztof 'Goofy' GórskiGoofy | 71 - 75 | -4 | 77.4 | 1.02 |
| Wiktor 'mynio' Krukmynio | 62 - 79 | -17 | 69.2 | 0.88 |
Kamil 'KEi' Pietkun 
Age: 21 Team: 9INE Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 699 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.70 
HEET #30 Audric 'JACKZ' JugAlexandre 'bodyy' PianaroThomas 'Djoko' PavoniPierre 'Ex3rcice' BulingeAurélien 'afro' Drapier 
Bad News Eagles #24 
Rigon 'rigoN' GashiSener 'SENER1' MahmutiFlatron 'juanflatroo' HalimiDionis 'sinnopsyy' BudeciGenc 'gxx-' Kolgeci 
FORZE #33 Andrey 'Jerry' MekhryakovAleksandr 'zorte' ZagodyrenkoAleksandr 'shalfey' Marenov 
Movistar Riders #23 Alejandro 'alex' MasanetAlejandro 'mopoz' Fernández-Quejo CanoPere 'sausol' Solsona SaumellDavid 'dav1g' Granado BermudoAntonio 'MartinezSa' Martinez 
Nouns #47 Danny 'Cxzi' StrzelczykDavid 'cynic' PolsterBrendan 'Bwills' WilliamsJeorge 'Jeorge' EndicottCarson 'nosraC' O'Reilly 
Rare Atom #67 Zhuo 'advent' LiangZhiHong 'aumaN' Liu
Andrew 'kaze' KhongYi 'JamYoung' YangJingxiang 'Mercury' Wang 
Genk #198 
Kyle 'Xaka' Gatt
Nils 'ReFuZR' Groot
Milan 'CrePoW' LibbrechtJacob 'Rezst' Hemming
Gytis 'ryu' Glu?auskas 
ATK #41 
Jonathan 'b0denmaster' BodenmalmIan 'motm' HardyMichael 'Swisher' Schmid
Gareth 'MisteM' RiesRhys 'Fadey' Armstrong 
Outsiders #7 Evgenii 'FL1T' Lebedev
Alexey 'Qikert' GolubevDzhami 'Jame' AliDavid 'n0rb3r7' DanielyanPetr 'fame' Bolyshev 
BLUEJAYS #60 Pavle 'stYleEeZ' StojanovskiAleksandar 'CacaNito' KjulukoskiDaniel 'dan1' GligorovDamjan 'kyxsan' StoilkovskiJane 'aidKiT' Apostoloski 9INE #113 Grzegorz 'SZPERO' Dziama?ekWiktor 'mynio' KrukKrzysztof 'Goofy' GórskiKamil 'KEi' PietkunKacper 'Kylar' Walukiewicz 
paiN #21 Vinicios 'PKL' CoelhoWesley 'hardzao' LopesRodrigo 'biguzera' BittencourtFelipe 'skullz' MedeirosRomeu 'zevy' Rocco 
1win #31 Egor 'flamie' Vasilyev
Igor 'lollipop21k' SolodkovAleksandr 'TRAVIS' TimkivAleksandr 'glowiing' MatsievichDenis 'deko' Zhukov 
Imperial #20 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFernando 'fer' AlvarengaRicardo 'boltz' PrassMarcelo 'chelo' CespedesVinicius 'VINI' Figueiredo Wiktor 'mynio' Kruk 
Age: 27 Team: 9INE Rating 1.0: 0.93 Maps played: 816 KPR: 0.64 DPR: 0.71 
Lynn Vision #102 Heng 'expro' YangZhe 'Westmelon' NiuSike 'z4kr' ZhangLizhi 'Starry' YeNiu 'Nelly' Zhe 
Falcons #38 Nathan 'NBK-' SchmittAli 'hAdji' Ha?noussBryan 'Maka' CandaKévin 'misutaaa' RabierJordan 'Python' Munck-Foehrle