New Identity beat out Rap Gang in tepid ESEA Proving Grounds field
New Identity have won the Norther American iteration of ESEA's Proving Grounds, besting LiViD and Rap Gang to take home $5,000 amongst a diminished field of teams.
Before the action even began, the bracket was decimated by numerous teams dropping out of the event. eUlarity, the mix-team featuring eUnited and Singularity players, was unable to compete due to Singularity playing in EPL Season 9 Relegation, while Stay Frosty and Main AWP dropped out due to personal reasons. As a result, only four of the five series that were scheduled were played out.
With all of the dropouts out the way, Monstars and LiViD squared off in the first quarterfinals bout of the day. During the event, LiViD notably used RUNnGun player Michael "miLLe" St-Pierre in place of Loic "effys" Sauvageau due to the latter still having five days left on his match-fixing ban. Even with a stand-in LiViD still managed to start off strong as they held firm to take a 10-5 lead on Inferno. After switching onto their T-side Monstars attempted to catch, however LiViD remained firmly in the lead throughout the map, taking it 16-9.
LiViD held onto their momentum as they moved onto their map pick of Nuke, winning their T-side with another 10-5 half. After the two squads switched sides, Monstars finally got into the action as they won the opening pistol round and five out of the next six rounds to tie up the action at 11-11. Monstars would manage to tie the game up last time at 12-12 before LiViD made their way into the semifinals with a 16-12 scoreline.
LiViDMonstars| LiViD |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Michael 'miLLe' St-Pierre |
45 - 34 | +11 | 87.1 | 84.9% | 1.35 |
| Mathieu 'INCRED' Bergeron |
44 - 33 | +11 | 84.0 | 75.5% | 1.34 |
| Danny 'huynh' Huynh |
43 - 31 | +12 | 86.6 | 73.6% | 1.28 |
| Anthony 'gMd' Guimond |
42 - 34 | +8 | 87.5 | 81.1% | 1.24 |
| Michael 'MkaeL' De Luca |
38 - 34 | +4 | 76.6 | 81.1% | 1.19 |
| Monstars |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Michael 'Swisher' Schmid |
35 - 41 | -6 | 78.4 | 62.3% | 0.95 |
| Dylan 'RIKO' Sabin-Arnce |
38 - 44 | -6 | 64.3 | 64.2% | 0.88 |
| Alex 'aproto' Protopapas |
32 - 41 | -9 | 74.3 | 62.3% | 0.88 |
| Shawn 'witmer' Taylor |
28 - 43 | -15 | 62.4 | 73.6% | 0.84 |
| Ian 'tex' Botsch |
33 - 43 | -10 | 70.6 | 58.5% | 0.83 |
Rounding out the quarterfinals, Rap Gang faced off against recently promoted Advanced team RBG. Starting on Overpass, the first half ended relatively inconclusively as RBG led 8-7. After switching sides, RBG surprised as they managed to pull off a perfect string of eight rounds to secure the first map 16-7.
Moving onto Mirage, Rap Gang had their chance to answer back as they pulled off an 11-4 T-side to end the half firmly in their favor. RBG kept things competitive half as they eventually found double digits before Rap Gang forced a third after claiming Mirage 16-11.
With the series tied, Rap Gang launched onto Nuke with a powerful T-side, winning the half 10-5. Following this, RBG seemed to run out of steam as they only found a single round on their T-side before Rap Gang won Nuke 16-6. With their victory and due to the wonky bracket Rap Gang proceeded directly to the finals.
Rap GangRBG| Rap Gang |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Justin 'FaNg' Coakley |
56 - 47 | +9 | 85.7 | 73.6% | 1.22 |
| Brendan 'Bwills' Williams |
56 - 49 | +7 | 81.5 | 68.1% | 1.16 |
| Erick 'Xeppaa' Bach |
54 - 49 | +5 | 70.0 | 75.0% | 1.07 |
| Kevin '4pack' Przypasniak |
48 - 49 | -1 | 72.8 | 68.1% | 1.07 |
| Bilal 'SPAMMER' Ali |
36 - 51 | -15 | 66.2 | 70.8% | 0.92 |
| RBG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Josh 'pwny' VanGorder |
56 - 47 | +9 | 86.5 | 69.4% | 1.17 |
| Colby 'Walco' Walsh |
53 - 49 | +4 | 75.2 | 68.1% | 1.03 |
| Jerric 'wiz' Jiang |
50 - 52 | -2 | 74.3 | 65.3% | 1.03 |
| Jadan 'HexT' Postma |
43 - 49 | -6 | 66.1 | 75.0% | 0.99 |
| Austin 'gmanchew' Vieira |
43 - 53 | -10 | 73.7 | 68.1% | 0.92 |
On the other side, things proceed as normal with New Identity squaring LiViD for a spot in the finals. On Overpass, LiViD managed to outpace New Identity to win their CT-side with a slight 9-6 lead. However, once they got onto their T-side the French Canadians looked lost as New Identity won the first nine rounds in a row before closing out the map 16-12.
Following this, they made quick work of LiViD on Nuke, winning their CT-side 12-3, before winning the next four rounds in a row on their T-side to take the map 16-3.
New IdentityLiViD| New Identity |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michael 'dapr' Gulino |
57 - 27 | +30 | 115.7 | 80.9% | 1.78 |
| Sebastian 'seb' Bucki |
39 - 26 | +13 | 83.6 | 76.6% | 1.27 |
| Will 'dazzLe' Loafman |
35 - 27 | +8 | 80.8 | 76.6% | 1.21 |
| Skyler 'Relyks' Weaver |
29 - 30 | -1 | 70.8 | 83.0% | 1.10 |
| Collin 'wrath' McSweegan |
32 - 36 | -4 | 80.0 | 70.2% | 1.04 |
| LiViD |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anthony 'gMd' Guimond |
39 - 38 | +1 | 93.1 | 72.3% | 1.19 |
| Mathieu 'INCRED' Bergeron |
28 - 35 | -7 | 68.8 | 66.0% | 0.94 |
| Michael 'miLLe' St-Pierre |
30 - 37 | -7 | 66.4 | 68.1% | 0.92 |
| Danny 'huynh' Huynh |
27 - 40 | -13 | 72.8 | 57.4% | 0.79 |
| Michael 'MkaeL' De Luca |
22 - 42 | -20 | 48.9 | 55.3% | 0.58 |
With the finals set, New Identity squared off against Rap Gang to see which team would take home the $5,000 prizepool. Starting on Dust2, neither side were able to gain a decisive lead in the first half, with Rap Gang ending it up by a single round. Following this, in the second half New Identity would start off by winning their CT-side pistol before Rap Gang launched into a flurry of rounds, taking the score up to 14-9. Unfortunately for them, they were unable to hold on as New Identity rebounded and secured the next seven rounds in a row to take a hard fought 16-14 victory.
After a very close game on Dust2, Mirage proved to be less close as after claiming a 9-6 lead on their CT-side, New Identity only allowed Rap Gang two more rounds before taking Mirage and the series with a 16-8 finish.
Rap GangNew Identity| Rap Gang |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kevin '4pack' Przypasniak |
44 - 35 | +9 | 93.0 | 75.9% | 1.36 |
| Brendan 'Bwills' Williams |
40 - 37 | +3 | 75.4 | 75.9% | 1.09 |
| Erick 'Xeppaa' Bach |
39 - 40 | -1 | 79.2 | 68.5% | 0.99 |
| Justin 'FaNg' Coakley |
29 - 44 | -15 | 59.4 | 59.3% | 0.80 |
| Bilal 'SPAMMER' Ali |
22 - 48 | -26 | 47.1 | 55.6% | 0.52 |
| New Identity |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michael 'dapr' Gulino |
44 - 34 | +10 | 98.4 | 77.8% | 1.35 |
| Skyler 'Relyks' Weaver |
43 - 29 | +14 | 75.7 | 85.2% | 1.28 |
| Sebastian 'seb' Bucki |
40 - 33 | +7 | 82.6 | 81.5% | 1.24 |
| Collin 'wrath' McSweegan |
42 - 38 | +4 | 80.4 | 77.8% | 1.20 |
| Will 'dazzLe' Loafman |
35 - 40 | -5 | 70.9 | 68.5% | 0.91 |
With New Identity winning the finals, the final standings for ESEA Proving Grounds is as follows:
1. New Identity - $5,000
2. Rap Gang
3. LiViD
4-5. Monstars
4-5. RBG
5-8. eUlarity
5-8. Main Awp
5-8. Stay Frosty
