GODSENT, Detonate, ATK, Northern Forces Black advance to S38 Advanced upper bracket semifinals
The first two rounds of the ESEA Advanced Season 38 upper bracket have concluded, seeing GODSENT, Detonate, ATK, and Northern Forces advancing to the upper bracket semifinals.
Meanwhile in the lower bracket, eighth-seed Levitate, ninth-seed Eros Black, eleventh-seed Brigada, and twelfth-seed eRa Eternity have been eliminated.
Starting off with the first round of the upper bracket, the matches went largely as expected, with each squad winning the match according to their seed in the bracket. Levitate bested Eros Black 2-0 despite using Eddie "hydrik" Olsen as a stand-in for WOOHOO while Detonate took down eRa Eternity in a somewhat labored 2-1 victory. Ukrainian-Russian squad Brigada claimed a 2-0 victory over Synthetic while Andrew "Andrew" Burrell's Synergy Reborn beat Max "Makzwell" Sparrey's X13 2-0.
In round two of the upper bracket. Levitate’s stand-in woes continued as they had to field coach Thomas "klank" Mennemeyer against the Brazilian juggernauts GODSENT. Despite this, Levitate kept Mirage competitive, forcing the Brazilians onto the 30th round after coming back from an 11-4 opening half before Epitacio "TACO" de Melo and co. won the map 16-14. Unfortunately for Levitate, after a strong showing on Mirage they were absolutely blown out on Nuke, with GODSENT crushing them 16-2 to continue their upper bracket run.
GODSENTLevitate| GODSENT |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Bruno 'b4rtiN' Câmara |
48 - 29 | +19 | 97.4 | 77.1% | 1.49 |
| Eduardo 'dumau' Wolkmer |
50 - 31 | +19 | 85.5 | 77.1% | 1.44 |
| João 'felps' Vasconcellos |
42 - 27 | +15 | 101.6 | 72.9% | 1.43 |
| Bruno 'latto' Rebelatto |
33 - 28 | +5 | 81.1 | 75.0% | 1.18 |
| Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo |
22 - 28 | -6 | 58.4 | 75.0% | 0.93 |
| Levitate |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Saad 'Pluto' Siraj |
36 - 40 | -4 | 91.9 | 62.5% | 1.01 |
 Devin 'AtomiK' Ferrell |
30 - 36 | -6 | 64.9 | 50.0% | 0.82 |
| Drew 'Drewtheshrew' Lamb |
28 - 40 | -12 | 59.7 | 52.1% | 0.70 |
| Mohamed 'Penguin' Algadir |
23 - 39 | -16 | 59.1 | 47.9% | 0.63 |
| Thomas 'klank' Mennemeyer |
22 - 41 | -19 | 49.1 | 58.3% | 0.59 |
On the opposite side of the upper bracket, Northern Forces had a strong showing against Synergy Reborn, taking a close 16-13 win on Inferno before battering the team 16-5 on Nuke. During the series, Matthew "D4rtyMontana" Paplawskas had a strong performance as he posted a 1.44 rating over the two maps.
The final series of upper bracket round two saw another near-upset on the first map as Synthetic claimed a confident 11-4 opening T-side before slowly losing control of the map – giving up the 30th round to allow the South Africans to win 16-14. Much like the series between GODSENT and Levitate, the second map, was far more one-sided; with ATK winning their opening T-side on Mirage 9-6 before taking the map 16-9.
ATKSynthetic| ATK |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Wiljahne 'wilj' Smith |
56 - 33 | +23 | 88.1 | 78.2% | 1.41 |
| Rhys 'Fadey' Armstrong |
42 - 34 | +8 | 86.9 | 74.5% | 1.29 |
| Ian 'motm' Hardy |
41 - 36 | +5 | 87.9 | 72.7% | 1.19 |
| Gareth 'MisteM' Ries |
33 - 42 | -9 | 76.0 | 76.4% | 1.03 |
| Josh 'bLazE' Saunders |
26 - 38 | -12 | 58.1 | 76.4% | 0.86 |
| Synthetic |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cameron 'legacy' Parkhurst |
36 - 35 | +1 | 76.5 | 63.6% | 1.04 |
| Andrew 'Tender' Cote |
39 - 41 | -2 | 78.3 | 67.3% | 1.03 |
| Jeremy 'taiwi' Wang |
37 - 40 | -3 | 73.6 | 69.1% | 1.03 |
| Graham 'GRAHAM' Smith |
38 - 43 | -5 | 73.7 | 70.9% | 0.98 |
| Garret 'garret' Henry |
32 - 42 | -10 | 70.5 | 69.1% | 0.91 |
In the lower bracket, Synergy Reborn dispatched Eros Black in a three map series, Synthetic claimed a 2-0 win over eRa Eternity, the French Canadians of Valors beat Brigada 2-0, and X13 claimed the only upset of the event so far with a 2-1 win over Levitate.
The upper bracket semifinals look as follows:
| Matchup | Date | Time |
| GODSENT vs. Detonate |
Sep. 30th | 8:30PM EDT |
| ATK vs. Northern Forces |
Sep. 30th | 8:00PM EDT |
Meanwhile, lower bracket round two will look as follows:
| Matchup | Date | Time |
| Synergy Reborn vs. Synthetic |
Sep. 30th | 9:30PM EDT |
 Valors vs. X13 |
Sep. 30th | 9:30PM EDT |
The full bracket can be found here.
