Buffdaddy's Paypal Team, Faint, ETHEREAL continue Advanced playoffs upper bracket ascent
The second round of the ESEA Advanced Season 33 playoffs bracket has come to a close, with Polar Ace South and SKDC notably falling into the lower bracket while Lux and Lavender are the top teams thus far to be eliminated.
Matches kicked off on Friday with a close game between number one seed Buffdaddy's PayPal Team squaring off against Season 32 Main champions Third Impact. The first two maps of the series went the distance as Third Impact started the series in the lead with a 16-14 win on Nuke before Buffdaddy's PayPal Team answered back with a 16-14 of their own Mirage. After winning Mirage, Buffdaddy's PayPal Team clinched the series on Dust2, putting up a strong 16-9 to send Third Impact into the lower bracket.
Another notable result saw eighth seed Serac continue their upper bracket run as they claimed a relatively one-sided 2-0 against Polar Ace South.
Elsewhere in the upper bracket, the veteran SKDC squad were sent into the lower bracket following a close 2-0 loss to Front. As for ETHEREAL, after a brief overtime scare against Kinship Black, they managed to take down the team 2-1 and continue their run through the upper bracket.
Rounding out the list of notable results in the upper bracket was the series between Rise and Faint. After impressing in their opening matchup against Super Nova, Rise's rise through the upper bracket came to an end as Faint managed to take a relatively easy 2-0 against the squad.
In the lower bracket, matches played out mostly as expected, with 20th seed RAIJIN being the highest ranked team eliminated as they were felled in a one-sided 2-0 loss to RBG. Besides RBG, Savage, Prospects, and Super Nova also managed to survive their second playoff series after falling into the lower bracket far earlier than expected.
The third round of the upper bracket is set to continue on March 24th with the following matches:
 Buffdaddy's PayPal Team |
vs | Serac |
 Polar Ace |
vs | Front |
| ETHEREAL |
vs | timbermen |
| Big Chillin |
vs | Faint |
Meanwhile, the second round of the lower bracket is set to get underway tonight with the following matches:
| Rise |
vs | Lux |
| UCF Knights |
vs | Hot Ass |
| Trivium |
vs | PDHM |
| Kinship Black |
vs | RBG |
| SKDC |
vs | Savage |
| Dogs of War |
vs | Xternal |
| Polar Ace South |
vs | Prospects |
| Third Impact |
vs | Super Nova |
Tonight's matches will see a number of top seeds fight for their tournament lives as fourth seed RBG, ninth seed Polar Ace South, and tenth seed Prospects have all fallen into the lower bracket over the course of the last two rounds.
The full bracket can be found here.
