Swole Patrol advance to EPICENTER closed qualifier over Bravado
Swole Patrol have become the third team to advance to the EPICENTER Moscow 2018 closed qualifier with their 2-0 win over Bravado. The MDL squad joins FURIA and BlackOut on the current team list, with four invites and one qualifier spot still to be determined.
Before the final went down, Swole Patrol had to battle past Hysteria while Bravado faced off against Vireo.pro. Inferno (16-13) and Nuke (16-4) were the proving grounds for Ryan "freakazoid" Abadir and co. in their matchup, while Cache (16-13) and Dust2 (16-5) went the way of Bravado in their bout against Vireo.pro.
With Vireo.pro fielding Rustun "Rustun" Lusk in place of Brandon "stellar" McGrath, things wouldn't be easy for them as they took on the MDL Season 28 champions. Bravado kicked off Vireo.pro's pick of Cache with a dominant 11-4 T side half as Johnny "JT" Theodosiou battled against Josh "PwnAlone" Pigue. A CT side pistol win granted Vireo.pro a 3-0 head start, but they were only able to find a single additional round as Bravado seemed set to quickly move the series into the second map.
Another pistol round victory allowed Vireo.pro to reduce their deficit to a 7-11 scoreline, and a swift reset after Bravado's first gun round victory pushed them further forward to even the score at 12-12. The South African side battled back for three rounds in a row to grab match point, and were able to close out the map after conceding one last round to the Vireo.pro side.
Dust2 saw the teams trade rounds at the start, with Bravado eventually coming out on top to stabilize their economy. A number of resets granted Bravado a 10-5 lead at the half as they swapped over to their T side, where a pistol round win granted them a clear path to a 16-5 finish.
Vireo.proBravado| Vireo.pro |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Robert 'robby' Brown |
31 - 41 | -10 | 82.7 | 52.0% | 0.94 |
| Donovan 'zNf' Froid |
31 - 38 | -7 | 79.0 | 60.0% | 0.94 |
| Josh 'PwnAlone' Pigue |
34 - 37 | -3 | 61.0 | 44.0% | 0.86 |
| Ethan 'paperboy' Lillie |
19 - 39 | -20 | 46.6 | 54.0% | 0.61 |
| Rustun 'Rustun' Lusk |
20 - 40 | -20 | 54.1 | 52.0% | 0.61 |
| Bravado |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou |
52 - 25 | +27 | 99.2 | 76.0% | 1.59 |
| Dimitri 'Detrony' Hadjipaschali |
35 - 24 | +11 | 74.9 | 80.0% | 1.28 |
| Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek |
39 - 27 | +12 | 82.1 | 78.0% | 1.25 |
| Ruan 'ELUSIVE' van Wyk |
32 - 25 | +7 | 77.9 | 78.0% | 1.17 |
| Rhys 'Fadey' Armstrong |
37 - 35 | +2 | 81.0 | 76.0% | 1.11 |
Swole Patrol had a similarly close affair on map 1 as they fought back from an 0-4 deficit to grab a narrow 8-7 lead at halftime on Inferno. Hysteria managed to secure the second pistol round for themselves to work their way back into the lead at 10-8, and they seemed set to pull ahead as a reset against Swole Patrol after the first gun round put them in the driver's seat.
Although Hysteria managed another trio of rounds, it was Braxton "swag" Pierce who stepped up alongside his teammates to push Swole Patrol back into the running. Six rounds in a row allowed swag's side to take Hysteria's map pick 16-13 as they moved on to Nuke.
Much like in Bravado's match against Vireo.pro, Hysteria offered little contest against Swole Patrol's CT side. They managed two rounds after Swole Patrol put up a 5-0 start, but found themselves quickly reset as the MDL team cruised to a 9-2 scoreline. Although Hysteria fought back for two more rounds, freakazoid ensured victory for his side with a 1.92 rating to take the map 16-4.
Swole PatrolHysteria| Swole Patrol |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryan 'freakazoid' Abadir |
45 - 27 | +18 | 93.5 | 85.7% | 1.43 |
| Braxton 'swag' Pierce |
42 - 24 | +18 | 86.7 | 79.6% | 1.38 |
| Austin 'Cooper' Abadir |
38 - 27 | +11 | 72.7 | 77.6% | 1.25 |
 Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado |
34 - 27 | +7 | 83.1 | 77.6% | 1.24 |
| Jordan 'Zellsis' Montemurro |
36 - 32 | +4 | 80.6 | 79.6% | 1.21 |
| Hysteria |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daniel 'picky' Milazzo |
31 - 35 | -4 | 75.8 | 63.3% | 1.02 |
| Jeremy 'Mundle' King |
32 - 41 | -9 | 69.0 | 71.4% | 0.89 |
| Malick 'dangle' Abid |
30 - 39 | -9 | 56.6 | 55.1% | 0.78 |
| Austin 'RenZ' Dickman |
26 - 38 | -12 | 57.2 | 67.3% | 0.77 |
| Eric 'HIA' Boggs |
18 - 42 | -24 | 48.8 | 55.1% | 0.59 |
It was Jordan "Zellsis" Montemurro's turn to shine as the grand final kicked off, seeing the two teams set to duke it out on Inferno (16-3), Nuke (16-8), and Train (N/A). Bravado's pick of Inferno was up first, and they were in for just as rough of a handling as Hysteria on Nuke as Swole Patrol kicked off their CT side.
A dominant 12-3 half left little room for Bravado to operate as each of their round wins resulted in a reset economy by the hands of Zellsis and co. The South African side remained locked out as they were unable to manage more than three rounds in the map, with Zellsis boasting an incredible 140 ADR and putting up a 2.23 rating.
The trio of Zellsis, swag, and freakazoid combined on Nuke to demolish Bravado's CT side hold, picking apart the defense to work their way up to an 11-4 T side lead. Although Bravado attempted to fight back in the second half off the back of a pistol victory, Swole Patrol brought the map to a swift close with a 16-8 scoreline to advance to the closed qualifier.
Swole PatrolBravado| Swole Patrol |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jordan 'Zellsis' Montemurro |
48 - 18 | +30 | 120.0 | 88.4% | 1.88 |
| Braxton 'swag' Pierce |
36 - 17 | +19 | 87.3 | 90.7% | 1.52 |
| Ryan 'freakazoid' Abadir |
35 - 17 | +18 | 85.2 | 88.4% | 1.49 |
| Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado |
28 - 18 | +10 | 66.4 | 76.7% | 1.25 |
| Austin 'Cooper' Abadir |
30 - 23 | +7 | 70.6 | 76.7% | 1.22 |
| Bravado |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dimitri 'Detrony' Hadjipaschali |
21 - 32 | -11 | 58.1 | 48.8% | 0.77 |
| Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek |
22 - 36 | -14 | 63.2 | 55.8% | 0.64 |
| Rhys 'Fadey' Armstrong |
19 - 38 | -19 | 58.3 | 48.8% | 0.50 |
| Ruan 'ELUSIVE' van Wyk |
13 - 34 | -21 | 40.4 | 39.5% | 0.45 |
| Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou |
18 - 38 | -20 | 48.5 | 44.2% | 0.45 |
The team list for the EPICENTER Moscow 2018 closed qualifier is now:
| BlackOut |
 FURIA |
| Swole Patrol |
 Qualifier #4 |
| Invite |
Invite |
| Invite |
Invite |
Just one open qualifier remains to decide the final qualification spot at the $300,000 event. Signups for the qualifier are still open on FACEIT's website until matches kick off on September 2nd.
