RBG, SKDC, Polar Ace South, Super Nova eliminated in Advanced playoffs lower bracket
Three more days of ESEA Advanced Season 33 playoffs play have come and gone, with Buffdaddy's PayPal Team, Polar Ace, ETHEREAL, and Faint making their way into the upper bracket semi-finals while RBG, SKDC, Savage, and Super Nova have been eliminated in the lower bracket.
Buffdaddy's PayPal Team started off round three by making quick work of Serac, claiming the 2-0, winning Nuke 16-10 and Mirage 16-9.
Buffdaddy's PaypalSerac| Buffdaddy's Paypal |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Noah 'ULTRA' Giesbrecht |
50 - 27 | +23 | 98.7 | 70.6% | 1.48 |
| Andrew 'ShoT_UP' Orlowski |
39 - 28 | +11 | 86.9 | 84.3% | 1.33 |
| Nick 'alter' Jackson |
39 - 35 | +4 | 73.8 | 76.5% | 1.10 |
| Alex 'aproto' Protopapas |
35 - 33 | +2 | 70.6 | 66.7% | 1.08 |
| Shawn 'witmer' Taylor |
26 - 26 | +0 | 61.2 | 72.5% | 1.06 |
| Serac |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Nicholas 'stealthy' Petrakos |
35 - 36 | -1 | 58.6 | 66.7% | 0.97 |
| Tyler 'nyuu' Delbene |
36 - 42 | -6 | 77.9 | 72.5% | 0.96 |
| Cameron 'Cam' Stewart |
33 - 37 | -4 | 78.3 | 60.8% | 0.94 |
| Frank 'Laxufy' Zeolla |
31 - 33 | -2 | 64.6 | 66.7% | 0.93 |
| Chris 'Rebo' Heindel |
14 - 41 | -27 | 41.6 | 49.0% | 0.49 |
The next series saw Polar Ace secure a 2-1 victory over Front. The opening two maps were mostly one-sided, with Front winning Inferno 16-7 before Polar Ace answered back with a 16-4 on Mirage. The action finally began to pick up on Dust2 with Polar Ace starting the map off with an 11-4 T-side. Polar Ace managed to prevent another blowout as they climbed up to thirteen rounds before Polar Ace secured the map 16-13.
Polar AceFront| Polar Ace |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sebastian 'retchy' Tropiano |
68 - 47 | +21 | 95.9 | 75.0% | 1.37 |
| Kevin '4pack' Przypasniak |
60 - 52 | +8 | 92.8 | 75.0% | 1.27 |
| D. 'v1king' M. |
50 - 42 | +8 | 70.1 | 69.4% | 1.09 |
| Ryan 'shanks' Ngo |
47 - 58 | -11 | 76.2 | 63.9% | 0.95 |
| Jimmy 'Marved' Nguyen |
39 - 49 | -10 | 65.3 | 70.8% | 0.90 |
| Front |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stephen 'SGM' Mechan |
48 - 54 | -6 | 88.4 | 73.6% | 1.09 |
| Joseph 'clear' Allen |
52 - 50 | +2 | 74.7 | 70.8% | 1.06 |
| Daniel 'stomp' Pomerantz |
52 - 54 | -2 | 78.7 | 65.3% | 1.05 |
| Nassir 'rugrat' Francique |
56 - 55 | +1 | 80.2 | 62.5% | 1.02 |
| Calvin 'becker' Becker |
37 - 53 | -16 | 56.4 | 59.7% | 0.80 |
Next up, ETHEREAL claimed a 2-0 win over timbermen. timbermen's map pick of Mirage was the closest map of the series, with the team narrowly winning their T-side 8-7. After switching sides, they held onto their lead for the next eleven rounds before ETHEREAL narrowly came out ahead to take the map 16-14. Overpass ended up being more one-sided towards ETHEREAL as after they won their T-side 8-7 they ran away with the map, only giving up two more rounds before taking Overpass 16-9.
ETHEREALtimbermen| ETHEREAL |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Malick 'dangle' Abid |
54 - 29 | +25 | 94.6 | 83.6% | 1.69 |
| Austin 'RenZ' Dickman |
52 - 37 | +15 | 94.8 | 78.2% | 1.34 |
| Shawn 'Magowi' O'Malley |
37 - 35 | +2 | 83.8 | 78.2% | 1.14 |
| Tony 'w0w' Zachary |
32 - 33 | -1 | 57.4 | 70.9% | 0.93 |
| Dennison 'fdeN' Fong |
30 - 33 | -3 | 61.6 | 70.9% | 0.90 |
| timbermen |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wyatt 'snav' Phillippi |
37 - 43 | -6 | 87.2 | 69.1% | 1.05 |
| Shane 'shane' Dressler |
39 - 41 | -2 | 72.4 | 65.5% | 0.90 |
| Kyle 'KEL' Murray |
33 - 41 | -8 | 70.8 | 56.4% | 0.86 |
| Jake 'eptima' Allen |
28 - 40 | -12 | 55.8 | 56.4% | 0.80 |
| Derek 'dare' Brown |
27 - 40 | -13 | 52.5 | 60.0% | 0.77 |
The final upper bracket quarterfinals match ended up being the closest of the quartet as Faint battled Big Chillin to take an extremely close 2-1 win after 90 rounds of play. Starting on Train Faint claimed a narrow 9-6 lead on their CT-side berfore holding Big Chillin at bay long enough to secure the map 16-14.
Moving onto Vertigo, Faint once again ended the half in the lead as they overran Big Chillin's defenses to win their T-side 9-7. Once the two teams switched sides, Big Chillin essentially returned the favor to Faint, putting up a 10-5 T-side of their own to take the map 16-14 and force the series onto Mirage.
On Mirage, Big Chillin had their turn to start the map in the driver's seat as they won their CT-side 10-5. However, much like on Vertigo, once the two teams switched sides Faint took control and managed to keep Big Chillin at bay long enough to take the map 16-14 and secure the series.
Big ChillinFaint| Big Chillin |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nick 'squidah' McDonald |
78 - 59 | +19 | 91.1 | 73.3% | 1.27 |
| Michael 'Munk' Klotz |
78 - 59 | +19 | 89.4 | 75.6% | 1.26 |
| 'bthd' |
62 - 61 | +1 | 69.9 | 65.6% | 0.98 |
| Matt 'dvl' Buechel |
44 - 56 | -12 | 62.5 | 68.9% | 0.94 |
| Bron 'bron' Mills |
49 - 57 | -8 | 64.9 | 65.6% | 0.93 |
| Faint |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ezekiel 'KmZ' Hughes |
67 - 62 | +5 | 79.0 | 60.0% | 1.14 |
| Alex 'vek' Voynov |
67 - 66 | +1 | 84.9 | 67.8% | 1.11 |
| George 'Powerzz' Yaede |
70 - 64 | +6 | 80.4 | 65.6% | 1.03 |
| Ian 'battery' Yates |
48 - 62 | -14 | 70.7 | 71.1% | 0.92 |
| Brian 'Brian2K' Ladron De Guevara |
39 - 59 | -20 | 45.4 | 61.1% | 0.69 |
In the lower bracket, round two went largely as expected, with the biggest upset seeing Soham "valens" Chowdhury's Savage take down SKDC 2-0 to send Kyle "OCEAN" O'Brien's lineup packing. Lower bracket round two also saw Super Nova take down Third Impact after flat performances from the former MDL lineup.
In the next round of the lower bracket, RBG and Savage's lower bracket runs came to an end thanks to 2-0 losses to Trivium and Dogs of War, respectively. As for Prospects, they sent Super Nova packing after a close 2-1 series.
The upper bracket semi-finals are set to commence on March 28th with the following matchups:
| Buffdaddy's PayPal Team |
vs | Polar Ace |
| ETHEREAL |
vs | Faint |
Over in the lower bracket, after three rounds of play, eight teams remain and will face off tonight in the following matchups:
| Serac |
vs | Rise |
| Front |
vs | Trivium |
| timbermen |
vs | Dogs of War |
| Big Chillin |
vs | Prospects |
The full bracket can be found here.
