Bravado blindsides Vision to win MDL Season 28
Bravado have won Season 28 of ESEA's MDL with their 2-1 win over Vision in the grand finals, taking home $16,650 for their efforts while Vision is left with $9,250 for themselves. The series was played out on Dust2, Nuke, and Overpass, with Bravado's pick of Dust2 up first.
The map began with the South African side securing their CT side pistol round, allowing them to put up the standard 3-0 lead after securing the ensuing anti-eco rounds. Vision were able to get themselves on the board as four of the next five rounds went their way to tie up the score.
Bravado managed to narrowly win the half as four kills by in-game leader Dimitri "Detrony" Hadjipaschali on a save round granted the South Africans a massive economic boon after being reset by Vision. The North Americans mustered three rounds of their own to trail by one round at the half for an 8-7 scoreline in Bravado's favor.
A dominant pistol round victory for Vision gave them the chance to tie up the score, and with Bravado planning to eek out a buy in the third round with their bomb plant, things seemed set for Vision to be able to regain their footing in the matchup. The North Americans managed to secure the second round against the ecoing side of Bravado, but with three players being taken down Vision had no chance to build up an economy before the South Africans fought back with their first gun round to put Vision on the back foot once again.
From here the match was closed out with ease by Bravado as a number of B site hits ensured Vision were locked out of the map, giving up only one round before taking Dust2 for themselves 16-10 with Detrony leading by example with a 29-12 scoreline.
Four kills in the opening pistol round on Nuke by Rhys "Fadey" Armstrong once again put Bravado on the board first, allowing the South Africans to stretch their lead to 3-0. Ricky "floppy" Kemery and Gabe "Spongey" Greiner pulled two rounds back for Vision, with Spongey picking up an ace to put Bravado on eco and floppy going on to frag out for his side.
It was Aran "Sonic" Groesbeek's turn to step up for Bravado as he found four kills once Bravado were back on guns to help his team snag another trio of rounds, but Vision replied with three of their own to keep the match neck-and-neck at 6-6. The final three rounds of the half once again saw a back-and-forth between the two sides, with Bravado coming out on top to close out the half 8-7 thanks to a 1vs2 P250 clutch by Ruan "ELUSIVE" van Wyk.
Bravado added to their tally as they took their third pistol round victory of the series, but a light pistol buy from Vision saw the momentum immediately swung back into the favor of the North Americans. An A site rush by Bravado proved fruitless as floppy once again racked up frags, picking up an ace to put Bravado back onto glocks with a broken economy.
Another multi-kill round by Fadey granted Bravado reprieve once their economy stabilized, and an unfortunate teamkill in the ensuing round by floppy allowed the South Africans to avoid an immediate reset with another round going in their favor.
Alex "lanhero" Suarez and Jake "kaboose" McDonald kept Vision in the running as they found two kills apiece, and kaboose continued on to combine with floppy to help Vision secure the remaining rounds in the map. Three kills in the final round from floppy saw Vision close out map 2 16-12, with floppy boasting 37 frags and 137 ADR to take us to Overpass.
Another CT side start saw Bravado once again pull ahead 3-0 to put themselves in the lead on Overpass, but Vision managed to even the score to 3-3 off the back of their first gun round victory. Their hopes of taking the lead quickly dissipated as Bravado blindsided Vision for the remainder of the half, giving up only one more round as Sonic, Detrony, and Fadey all stepped up for their team.
Vision gave themselves a fighting chance as the last pistol round of the series went their way, but found themselves immediately reset as the deagles of Sonic, Detrony, and ELUSIVE rang out to plow through the North American defense.
With Vision's economy in ruin, Bravado cruised to a 16-5 victory to claim a 2-1 victory over Vision, becoming the champions of ESEA MDL Season 28 just one season after winning ESEA Main.
BravadoVision| Bravado |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek |
58 - 47 | +11 | 85.1 | 80.0% | 1.22 |
| Dimitri 'Detrony' Hadjipaschali |
56 - 45 | +11 | 83.1 | 74.7% | 1.22 |
| Ruan 'ELUSIVE' van Wyk |
55 - 45 | +10 | 78.0 | 74.7% | 1.21 |
| Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou |
52 - 45 | +7 | 69.1 | 78.7% | 1.12 |
| Rhys 'Fadey' Armstrong |
60 - 57 | +3 | 85.1 | 73.3% | 1.11 |
| Vision |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ricky 'floppy' Kemery |
60 - 60 | +0 | 89.5 | 72.0% | 1.16 |
| Gabe 'Spongey' Greiner |
55 - 49 | +6 | 74.6 | 70.7% | 1.10 |
| Jake 'kaboose' McDonald |
48 - 60 | -12 | 74.5 | 68.0% | 1.03 |
| Alex 'lanhero' Suarez |
45 - 58 | -13 | 69.9 | 66.7% | 0.90 |
 Danny 'huynh' Huynh |
31 - 55 | -24 | 38.7 | 60.0% | 0.70 |
The final standings for ESEA MDL Season 28 playoffs are as follows:
1. Bravado — $16,650
2. Vision — $9,250
3-4. Gorilla Gang — $5,550
3-4. Monstars — $5,550
5-8. Dignitas
5-8. 
FYB
5-8. Vireo.pro
5-8. Swole Patrol
With the conclusion of MDL Season 28, the bottom seven teams from this season are set to play in Relegation matches to hold on to their spots. ESEA Advanced playoffs are set to begin on June 30th, where the likes of oNe, Big Frames, Glockoma, and Guerilla Tactics will fight for a spot in MDL Season 29.
