RBG win Phoenix Series 1 over ex-Rise
RBG, featuring Troy "ara" Pollock and then Anthony "CLASIA" Kearney in place of the recently departed Kyle "Wolffe" Greenfield, have won the first iteration of the three-part Phoenix series hosted by Polyient Games. RBG have secured a spot in the $10,000 finals that will take place later this summer in addition to a $5,000 payout for this event, which will be paid out half in cash and half in PGU token. ex-Rise were also granted a spot in the final event, but received just $1,250 in winnings (split the same way).
The three ESEA Premier Season 37 teams comprised the podium and fended off any and all attempts at the upset-minded Advanced teams that stood in their way. RBG, ex-Rise, Third Impact, and HeadShotKings all held their opponents to single-digit scorelines in their quarterfinal tilts before advancing to the best-of-three portion of the tournament, which included the semifinals, third-place match, and grand final.
Third Impact gave RBG a run for their money in the first semifinal and were down just 7-8 after the first half of Overpass, but RBG pulled away in the second half to seize a 1-0 series lead and carried that momentum into map two. Third Impact were left with their heads spinning on Vertigo, where they managed to secure just three first-half rounds as RBG completed the sweep.
ex-Rise did the opposite to HeadShotKings and started off the series with a dominant performance on Inferno. The Premier side turned a 10-5 lead into a 16-8 win and went into Overpass with the series lead. There it was Aidan "Aidan" Higgason who made a world of difference, he finished the map with 30 kills, while Max "Makzwell" Sparrey led HeadShotKings with 24 frags.
The losers of the semifinals still had plenty to play for, as the prize pool was over twice as nice for the winner of their third-place match. For a while it looked as though HeadShotKings were going to get the sole upset over a ESEA Season 37 Premier team in the event, as the ESEA Advanced side converted a slim 8-7 lead on Train into a surprise 1-0 series lead behind 23 kills apiece from Makzwell and Matthew "scar" Bruni.
But then Third Impact got into their groove and reverse swept HeadShotKings with highly contested wins on Nuke and Overpass. The leading fraggers for Third Impact were Walker "walker" Harris and Brennan "grape" Greer, who finished with 25 and 26 kills on the latter two maps, respectively.
Both teams in the grand final had already secured a spot in the Phoenix Series finals by the time they played, but much like the third-place match, the cash prize was twice as large for the winner of their final best-of-three series.
ex-Rise got off to a good start on Inferno and led 8-7 after their T-side, but RBG cracked their defense time and time again in the second half. ex-Rise conceded nine of the final eleven rounds and found themselves down 1-0 in the series. Kevin "consti" Yi led the lobby with 23 kills, but a balanced attack from RBG ended up beating out the individual performance at Jadan "HexT" Postma was the only player on the hybrid North American roster that didn't eclipse 20 frags.
When the venue shifted to Nuke the series turned into the Colby "Walco" Walsh show. The Canadian nearly doubled up four of the five members of ex-Rise and finished the map with 31 kills. Cody "Domorin" Lutzel led his team with 20 frags as ex-Rise simply couldn't fight their way back into the series after going down 6-9 on CT-side. RBG cruised to a map, series, and event win and pocketed $2,500 for their trouble.
ex-RiseRBG| ex-Rise |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Cody 'Domorin' Lutzel |
35 - 36 | -1 | 62.9 | 70.4% | 0.99 |
| Kevin 'consti' Yi |
37 - 41 | -4 | 68.6 | 64.8% | 0.95 |
 Filip 'Feedalee' Mitevski |
31 - 39 | -8 | 65.1 | 66.7% | 0.86 |
| Aidan 'Aidan' Higgason |
32 - 39 | -7 | 66.3 | 57.4% | 0.85 |
| Richie 'sherps' Sherpa |
28 - 41 | -13 | 63.7 | 66.7% | 0.83 |
| RBG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Colby 'Walco' Walsh |
52 - 33 | +19 | 82.6 | 72.2% | 1.35 |
| Jerric 'wiz' Jiang |
42 - 30 | +12 | 80.2 | 74.1% | 1.27 |
| Jadan 'HexT' Postma |
34 - 32 | +2 | 72.5 | 79.6% | 1.16 |
| Anthony 'CLASIA' Kearney |
34 - 34 | +0 | 77.1 | 74.1% | 1.08 |
| Connor 'chop' Sullivan |
33 - 35 | -2 | 72.4 | 74.1% | 1.01 |
The bracket in its entirety can be found here.
The final standings for Polyient Games Phoenix Series 1 are:
1. 
RBG (HexT, Walco, wiz, chop, CLASIA - Coach: ara) - $2,500 & Finals
2. ex-Rise (Domorin, Aidan, Feedalee, consti, sherps - Coach: LAJT) - $1,250 & Finals
3. Third Impact (DaneJoris, insane, brett, walker, grape - Coach: becker) - $750
4. HeadShotKings (Makzwell, Lemonz, doltn, Talen, scar) - $300
5-8. Able (Feral, jtmythic, D4rtyMontana, AtomiK, freshie) - $50
5-8. Villainous (ayy, Umar, learsi, Cryptic, ZFranks) - $50
5-8. Valkyrie (silas, k1, CoJoMo, KenZ, SuiteR) - $50
5-8. Parabellum (Tense, DryestViper, frequency, nitsuj, Zenith - Coach: kel) - $50
The dates for the second event have not been announced yet, but it will feature the same format and prize pool as we move closer to the $10,000 finals event later this summer.
