Telluride Bush beats Surge, falls to Falcons in map 5

Friday was the biggest day the Bush has had yet: a Challengers team dropped into a group with 3 Call of Duty League franchises, and Jersey Jerry was hyped from the jump.

Jersey Jerry

@Jerrythekid21

BIG BUSH DAY t.co/yiYxI5PHjn

The Launch Invitational is the pre-season event that puts all 12 CDL teams and 4 Challengers sides into the same bracket. The Bush drew Group C with the Riyadh Falcons, the Vancouver Surge and the Miami Heretics. That's no gentle landing spot for a team that's still paying its dues.

The first look at the Falcons went about how you'd expect. Bush were down 0-2 after a rough Hardpoint and a scrappy Search and Destroy, and the Falcons closed it out on Hijacked.

Telluride Bush Gaming

@tBushGaming

Heartbreaker on hijacked. We fall 0-3 to The Falcons. Gg’s. Second series vs. The Surge coming soon, will update 🌳

That could have been the whole story. Instead the Bush went into a win-or-go-home series with the Surge, a pro team, and won it. Coming out of the lower half of the group, that earned them a second shot at the Falcons, with a spot in Saturday's bracket going to the winner.

The rematch looked nothing like the first one. Bush dropped map 1, then tied it 1-1 in Search and Destroy behind an ace from ExceedLbX. Then they found a comeback late in the series to drag a franchise with Clayster and KiSMET on the roster to a deciding map 5.

Telluride Bush Gaming

@tBushGaming

INSANE COMEBACK. WE ARE GOING TO MAP 5 WITH @Riyadh_Falcons

And it went the distance. Map 5 went to round 11, the last round there is, and the Falcons won it. They're into the bracket, and the Bush are done at the Launch Invitational. Getting that close and losing in the final round hurts more than a sweep would have, and the owner did not try to hide it.

Jersey Jerry

@Jerrythekid21

Proud of these guys !!! Beat a pro team today and took the Falcons to MAP 5 who has a 2 million dollar roster. Good fight from the guys !!! Cup 1 next week. Back in the Lab.

Telluride Bush Gaming

@tBushGaming

Gg to @Riyadh_Falcons , we lost map 5 round 11 and sold. Back next week for the first cup. The guys showed some heart today 🌳 @ExceedLbX @5SkiL @Aspekttt_ @oJohnnyGian

The "2 million dollar roster" line is Jerry talking, but the point holds. A Challengers team beat one CDL franchise and took another to the final round of the final map on the same day. Next up is the first Challengers cup next week, and after Friday the Bush walk into it as a team that has already played pros, not just a team hoping to.