Gorilla Gang, Bravado, Monstars, and Vision through to MDL Season 28 playoffs semifinals
The quarterfinal matchups for ESEA MDL Season 28 Playoffs have come to a close, seeing Gorilla Gang, Bravado, Monstars, and Vision through to the semifinals.
The opening match saw Gorilla Gang up against Swole Patrol, who lost Derrick 'LILMAN" Boyne only yesterday and were fielding Yazan "clowN" Ammari in his stead for MDL playoffs. A narrow 2-0 victory for the Gorillas saw Cameron "Hydrex" Kern and Anthony "Vanity" Malaspina combine to stave off Jordan "Zellsis" Montemurro on Mirage and Inferno.
The most anticipated series of the day was next up as Dignitas faced Bravado on Inferno, Mirage, and Dust2. Bravado's pick of Inferno was up first, where the South African team put up a dominant T side for a 9-6 half in their favor. Dignitas managed to even the score by winning the second pistol round and ensuing anti-ecos, but Bravado quickly took control to put themselves in touching distance of a map win at 15-9.
Peter "ptr" Gurney and co. attempted to fight back, managing four rounds back before Bravado closed out their map pick to go up 1-0 in the series.
Mirage saw Dignitas completely outclass Bravado as all of the North American players came to play. Mitch "m1tch" Semago and ptr led the way for their side to demolish Bravado's CT side hold and claim a 12-3 half lead, and quickly closed out the map 16-5 after giving up only two more rounds for a dominant finish.
Dust2 saw Aran "Sonic" Groesbeek and Johnny "JT" Theodosiou take the reigns for Bravado to absolutely dominate Dignitas' T side, throttling the Americans attack for a 13-2 half despite ptr's best efforts to fight back. The final map seemed set for a quick finish as the second half began, but Dignitas managed to secure the second pistol round of the map to give themselves the smallest chance of a comeback.
Round after round Dignitas did what Bravado had done to them, with ptr shutting down the South Africans to almost even the score at 12-13. Bravado finally managed one round back, but it was Dignitas who claimed match point first to continue their own ironclad defensive hold. It was thanks to an overextension by Ronnie "ryx" Bylicki in mid on the 30th round that finally gave Bravado the chance to crack open the Dignitas defense, taking the match to overtime.
Once again the two teams battled back and forth as ptr continued to find frags. The normally consistent Gage "Infinite" Green was notably absent from the scoreboard for the Dignitas side for the series, but particularly so on Dust2. Bravado were able to stabilize as the map went to a second overtime, where Sonic and co. finally secured the win after almost letting it slip from their grasp.
DignitasBravado| Dignitas |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Peter 'ptr' Gurney |
90 - 52 | +38 | 92.5 | 76.9% | 1.45 |
| Mitch 'mitch' Semago |
61 - 55 | +6 | 73.7 | 72.5% | 1.15 |
| Ronnie 'ryx' Bylicki |
65 - 66 | -1 | 90.7 | 82.4% | 1.14 |
| Michael 'Grim' Wince |
50 - 64 | -14 | 60.9 | 64.8% | 0.88 |
| Gage 'Infinite' Green |
45 - 68 | -23 | 54.0 | 68.1% | 0.77 |
| Bravado |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek |
64 - 63 | +1 | 83.0 | 76.9% | 1.18 |
| Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou |
73 - 63 | +10 | 84.1 | 69.2% | 1.16 |
| Dimitri 'Detrony' Hadjipaschali |
57 - 61 | -4 | 69.0 | 69.2% | 1.00 |
| Ruan 'ELUSIVE' van Wyk |
66 - 57 | +9 | 68.8 | 73.6% | 0.99 |
| Rhys 'Fadey' Armstrong |
42 - 68 | -26 | 60.2 | 62.6% | 0.78 |
Vision had an easier time taking down FYB as Ricky "floppy" Kemery and Gabe "Spongey" Greiner stepped up for a 13-2 half on Nuke and 11-4 half on Cache to take a 2-1 win. Braxton "swag" Pierce was a shadow of himself as his performance in all three maps of the series was his worst in Season 28.
The final match of the night saw Monstars 2-0 Vireo.pro off the back of a strong performance from Alex "aproto" Protopapas, allowing the team to comeback from a 4-11 deficit at the half on the first map of Mirage before crushing Vireo.pro on Overpass with a 13-2 T half of their own.
With these wins, Gorilla Gang, Bravado, Monstars, and Vision have advanced to the semifinals. Bravado is set to take on Monstars in the first match of the day tomorrow at 6:30 PM EDT, with Gorilla Gang facing Vision shortly after for a spot in the finals.
