paiN win first Cash Cup of 2021 with victory over Bad News Bears
paiN have emerged as the victors of ESEA Spring Cup 4 after swiftly dispatching Recon 5 and then besting Bad News Bears in a hotly contested series. Notably, this is the first time the Brazilians have won a Cash Cup in 2021, although they won two of the smaller cups in 2020.
The second day of the cash cup started out with paiN making quick work of Recon 5, smashing Tyler "tweiss" Weiss' squad 16-6 and 16-8 on Dust2 and Mirage, respectively. During the series, Rodrigo "biguzera" Bittencourt was paiN's standout player, ending the two maps with an 84.8% KAST and a 1.66 rating.
Recon 5paiN| Recon 5 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Tyler 'tweiss' Weiss |
31 - 35 | -4 | 73.0 | 58.7% | 0.87 |
| Koby 'kobruh' Higgs |
22 - 38 | -16 | 68.3 | 47.8% | 0.69 |
| Dylan 'SATURN' Finch |
21 - 37 | -16 | 47.4 | 60.9% | 0.65 |
| Austin 'AAustiN' Urb |
19 - 34 | -15 | 52.0 | 54.3% | 0.63 |
| Dominick 'JazzPimp' Dimpfel |
21 - 39 | -18 | 55.7 | 54.3% | 0.62 |
| paiN |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Rodrigo 'biguzera' Bittencourt |
48 - 21 | +27 | 102.5 | 84.8% | 1.66 |
| Wesley 'hardzao' Lopes |
36 - 18 | +18 | 78.9 | 84.8% | 1.43 |
| Rafael 'saffee' Costa |
36 - 19 | +17 | 79.0 | 82.6% | 1.41 |
| Vinicios 'PKL' Coelho |
31 - 27 | +4 | 77.2 | 73.9% | 1.20 |
| Gabriel 'NEKIZ' Schenato |
32 - 29 | +3 | 83.8 | 69.6% | 1.19 |
The second semifinal of the Cash Cup was equally decisive for Bad News Bears, with Peter "ptr" Gurney's troops obliterating Triumph 16-6 on Overpass and 16-4 on Train. In a common sight, Jonathan "Jonji" Carey led the way for Bad News Bears, ending the series with a 1.57 rating.
Bad News BearsTriumph| Bad News Bears |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jonathan 'Jonji' Carey |
43 - 31 | +12 | 110.6 | 85.7% | 1.57 |
| Michael 'Swisher' Schmid |
34 - 18 | +16 | 72.3 | 81.0% | 1.33 |
| Nick 'alter' Jackson |
35 - 26 | +9 | 84.4 | 71.4% | 1.28 |
| Peter 'ptr' Gurney |
27 - 23 | +4 | 76.5 | 83.3% | 1.21 |
| Gabe 'Spongey' Greiner |
29 - 17 | +12 | 71.6 | 78.6% | 1.21 |
| Triumph |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brendan 'Bwills' Williams |
31 - 31 | +0 | 72.8 | 69.0% | 1.03 |
| David 'cynic' Polster |
24 - 37 | -13 | 78.2 | 69.0% | 0.84 |
| Alan 'Shakezullah' Hardeman |
22 - 34 | -12 | 57.5 | 64.3% | 0.78 |
| Austin 'Cooper' Abadir |
23 - 33 | -10 | 61.4 | 54.8% | 0.73 |
| Wesley 'viz' Harris |
15 - 34 | -19 | 43.9 | 45.2% | 0.46 |
In the finals, paiN struck the first blow on their map pick of Nuke, winning their T-side 11-4 thanks to massive performances from biguzera and Rafael "saffee" Costa — with the latter punctuating his performance with a 1v3 in the eighth round. The second half saw Bad News Bears win five out of the first seven rounds before paiN claimed the next three to take Nuke 16-9.
Moving onto Inferno, paiN started their opponent's map pick up 5-1 before suffering a reversal of fortunes as Bad News Bears won eight out of the next nine rounds to win their T-side 9-6. In the second half, paiN won their T-side pistol and the following two rounds before falling flat once again as Bad News Bears won the next seven rounds to take their map pick 16-9.
After winning their respective map picks, both teams headed into Dust2 in strong form, with paiN winning their opening CT-side 10-5 and biguzera once again top fragging on the Brazilian squad. Once Bad News Bears moved onto their CT-side, they quickly whittled away at paiN's lead, only conceding a single round out of the first ten. Unfortunately for Jonji and co. after a number of close rounds the team, and their bank accounts, began to run out of steam, allowing paiN to win the next five rounds and narrowly take Dust2 16-14.
paiNBad News Bears| paiN |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rodrigo 'biguzera' Bittencourt |
67 - 50 | +17 | 90.5 | 78.8% | 1.32 |
| Rafael 'saffee' Costa |
64 - 48 | +16 | 80.7 | 73.8% | 1.18 |
| Wesley 'hardzao' Lopes |
56 - 56 | +0 | 82.2 | 70.0% | 1.09 |
| Gabriel 'NEKIZ' Schenato |
52 - 59 | -7 | 71.5 | 71.2% | 1.00 |
| Vinicios 'PKL' Coelho |
48 - 61 | -13 | 60.7 | 65.0% | 0.88 |
| Bad News Bears |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gabe 'Spongey' Greiner |
65 - 52 | +13 | 86.3 | 80.0% | 1.27 |
| Peter 'ptr' Gurney |
55 - 51 | +4 | 73.1 | 72.5% | 1.07 |
| Michael 'Swisher' Schmid |
54 - 54 | +0 | 70.0 | 67.5% | 1.03 |
| Jonathan 'Jonji' Carey |
53 - 66 | -13 | 77.7 | 67.5% | 0.99 |
| Nick 'alter' Jackson |
44 - 64 | -20 | 68.4 | 71.2% | 0.86 |
The third place decider match was a fairly one-sided affair for Triumph, with the team crushing Recon 5 once again to claim third place for the second time in a row.
Recon 5Triumph| Recon 5 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dylan 'SATURN' Finch |
25 - 37 | -12 | 63.8 | 57.8% | 0.73 |
| Austin 'AAustiN' Urb |
24 - 38 | -14 | 64.2 | 60.0% | 0.72 |
| Koby 'kobruh' Higgs |
23 - 39 | -16 | 68.9 | 51.1% | 0.69 |
| Tyler 'tweiss' Weiss |
24 - 41 | -17 | 59.0 | 55.6% | 0.58 |
| Dominick 'JazzPimp' Dimpfel |
17 - 39 | -22 | 45.1 | 44.4% | 0.43 |
| Triumph |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austin 'Cooper' Abadir |
50 - 23 | +27 | 110.6 | 91.1% | 1.86 |
| Brendan 'Bwills' Williams |
45 - 18 | +27 | 87.8 | 82.2% | 1.61 |
| David 'cynic' Polster |
46 - 24 | +22 | 109.2 | 84.4% | 1.60 |
| Wesley 'viz' Harris |
28 - 27 | +1 | 76.2 | 84.4% | 1.18 |
| Alan 'Shakezullah' Hardeman |
24 - 22 | +2 | 62.9 | 86.7% | 1.11 |
The final standings for ESEA Spring Cash Cup 4 are:
1. paiN (PKL, biguzera, hardzao, NEKIZ, saffee) - $9,000
2. Bad News Bears (Swisher, ptr, Jonji, alter, Spongey, Coach: madcow) - $4,000
3. Triumph (Shakezullah, Bwills, Cooper, viz, cynic, Coach: tacitus) - $2,000
4. Recon 5 (kobruh, JazzPimp, tweiss, SATURN, AAustiN)
5-6. Third Impact (DaneJoris, insane, brett, walker, grape, Coach: becker)
5-6. 
CarbonX (kenz, K1, silas, SuiteR, CoJoMo)
The next Cash Cup is yet to be announced but will likely take place sometime in the next two weeks following the conclusion of ESEA Premier Season 36 playoffs.
