Article written by: Mike "nartouthere"
We finally made it to playoffs, y'all. Season 34 of ESEA Advanced has been a great one--potentially one of the greatest. Now, all of the hard work from the regular season is coming to a head. The grind to make MDL really comes to the stone, and only a select few will make it. Round 1 was full of clean sweeps, but there were a number of great stories that came out of it. Check out Nartouthere's recap of the first series of matches.
#1 Kinship 2-0 #16 SKDC
SKDC weren’t able to pull off the same magic they did last season, where they upset RBG in Round 1. For Kinship, it was the dynamic duo of Wolffe and CLASIA carrying them to victory. Wolffe contributed with 44 frags and 100 ADR (+15) for the series. CLASIA also tagged on 44 kills and an 86 ADR (+17).
#2 RBG Esports 2-0 #15 Savage
RBG passed their first hurdle in their road to MDL Regulation. The map veto heavily favored them with all three maps being some of the strongest in their pool (Inferno, Nuke, Overpass).
pwny had a dominant map one with 23 frags and 93 ADR. Map two was on Nuke, where Savage threw away many anti-ecos. Throwing away these winnable rounds likely cost them the match. Regardless, HexT- stepped up big with 27 kills and 103 ADR.
Honorable mention goes to Turismo who had a great map one with 28 kills, 114 ADR, 6 entries, two 1v1s, one 1v2 clutch, and an ace.
#9 Thunder Logic 2-0 #8 26 Rising
TL showed that despite their recent rocky performances and 9th seed, they are still a very dangerous team. Sharkie played lights out, top fragging both maps. This is a very good sign to see if you are in TL’s camp, seeing how you still have players like Inseaniac and PureR on the same team.
#5 Big Chillin 2-0 #12 teef
BC struggled early on Inferno (teef’s pick). They found themselves down 3-6 on CT side, but then went on a run and ended the half 9-6 and never looked back as the streak continued onto the second map. heaty was BC’s best performer.
#4 Third Impact 2-0 #13 Addice Inc
Addice Inc. continued their poor performance heading into Upper Round 1. They lost their map pick (Inferno) 6-16. Despite the loss, phantomm had an insane 1v5.
Third Impact collectively as a team played very well and had 4 players with 80+ ADR. On Mirage (TI’s pick), it was a back and forth battle with TI winning the first half 8-7 on their T-side. They got up to 12-8 and Addice Inc. made a run to even it up 12-12. From that point on, TI was able to close the game with a 1v1 and 1v2 clutch.
#7 Team Hyperrr 2-0 #10 FrontGG
This series was amazing. Team Hyperrr picked Nuke for map one. This is a map they were able to upset RBG on in the regular season and it’s also a map that FrontGG only has 1 match played on during the regular season. FrontGG put up a fight taking the first half 11-4 on the CT-side. On their T-Side, they were able to bring the scoreline to a 14-6 lead. From that point on, they could not win a round. Team Hyperrr showed great resilience as they were able to bring the match back with a 16-14 win.
Onto Mirage (FrontGG’s pick), where Team Hyperrr had not played any matches this season. Team Hyperrr’s dynamic-duo of sensu and Florgy put in work with 31 and 29 kills respectively, leading them to a 16-13 win.
#14 Supernova 2-0 #3 Imperium Gaming
This was the biggest “upset” of the night in terms of seeding. However, I did have Imperium Gaming as overrated in terms of the third seed. Supernova’s star player koalanoob took over and finished the series with 57 kills 32 deaths (+25) and 118 ADR.
#6 Lethal Divide 2-0 #11 ImPerium Esports
A very close series between the two teams. It started on Overpass (ImPerium Esports’ pick). ImPerium Esports had a very good record on this map (5-0 in the regular season). On the other side, Lethal Divide had only played it once. CarterJ had an absurd performance in this game, racking up 35 kills and 112 ADR. However, it was not enough to get them the win as KEL also had a great game, collecting 31 kills and 103 ADR. The biggest round was from snav who had the below nice 1v4 clutch:
On Train (Lethal’s pick), ImPerium Esports had game point 15-14 with Lethal Divide on a bad buy. Lethal Divide managed to win the round and bring the game to overtime, winning 19-16 and closing the series 2-0. heretic- (ImPerium Esports) snagged 32 kills and on the other side DARE led the way for Lethal Divide with 34 kills.