Gaimin Gladiators triumph in ESEA x Fragadelphia Summer Cash Cup 3
Gaimin Gladiators have reigned supreme in the third ESEA Summer Cash Cup after taking down the Alan "Shakezullah" Hardeman-led Ga$ Money mix team in the grand finals. This first-place finish sees David "cynic" Polster and company earn themselves a $4,000 and 4,000 FRAG Point payday for their troubles.
The first day of the competition played out largely as expected. The only near-upsets observed saw ONET4P narrowly survive ex-Limitless, Ga$ Money being given a scare by Fourth Quarter, and timbermen breaking a sweat in their game versus Zack "ZFranks" Frankel's Heroic squad, with all of these games ending with 16-13 scorelines.
The first semifinal of the event saw Gaimin Gladiators face off against timbermen, kicking off the affair on the latter's choice of Mirage. A stalwart defense by cynic's boys allowed the Gladiators to drum up a hefty 11-4 lead by the switch, before going five for five in the second half to steal the map 16-9.
The second and final map of the series took the two squads to Gaimin Gladiators' pick of Ancient, with the hosts posting an eight-round T-side effort to lead by just one round at the switch. This hard-fought nature continued after the two teams swapped sides, with another 8-7 half in favor of cynic and co. seeing the squad snatch the map away 16-14; locking in a spot in the grand finals in the process.
The grand final pitted Gaimin Gladiators against Ga$ Money, a mix team consisting of Paytyn "junior" Johnson, Mario "malbsMd" Samayoa, and – for the first map of the final in place of Shakezullah – Michael "Grim" Wince. The Gladiators came out swinging on their foes' pick of Vertigo, jumping out to a strong 10-5 lead thanks to individual heroics from cynic. Eager to not let the map slip away, Gaimin Gladiators doubled down on their CT-side, adding six rounds to Ga$ Money's four to snatch the map away 16-9.
While Vertigo was the Gladiators' playground, Nuke started off as a completely different story, seeing Shakezullah return to the server in commanding fashion as he helped spearhead a stellar 13-2 CT-side half for the mix team. Turning the map on its head, Gaimin Gladiators found it in them to post their own near-flawless defense, adding thirteen rounds of their own to force a trip to overtime. Despite this, Ga$ Money put a stop to the comeback attempt, clinching the win with a 22-19 scoreline.
Inferno would play host to the deciding map of the series, with Gaimin Gladiators once again going on a tear to start the map, leading with a comfortable 12-3 score by the end of their offense. Looking to mount a comeback of their own, Ga$ Money managed to dig deep and find nine rounds of their own. Alas, the initial deficit would prove too much to overcome, with cynic's squad eventually crossing the line with a 16-12 victory to claim gold.
Gaimin GladiatorsGas Money| Gaimin Gladiators |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jeorge 'Jeorge' Endicott |
85 - 62 | +23 | 106.7 | 74.5% | 1.42 |
| Dominick 'JazzPimp' Dimpfel |
69 - 63 | +6 | 75.2 | 74.5% | 1.15 |
| Carson 'nosraC' O'Reilly |
62 - 67 | -5 | 82.1 | 72.3% | 1.11 |
| David 'cynic' Polster |
64 - 60 | +4 | 66.3 | 73.4% | 1.03 |
| Brendan 'Bwills' Williams |
52 - 57 | -5 | 64.1 | 72.3% | 0.94 |
| Gas Money |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michael 'Grim' Wince |
24 - 17 | +7 | 92.3 | 68.0% | 1.27 |
| Paytyn 'junior' Johnson |
65 - 61 | +4 | 76.1 | 70.2% | 1.10 |
| Alan 'Shakezullah' Hardeman |
47 - 49 | -2 | 75.1 | 72.5% | 1.05 |
 Mario 'malbsMd' Samayoa |
61 - 69 | -8 | 73.7 | 63.8% | 0.93 |
| Michael 'Swisher' Schmid |
61 - 72 | -11 | 76.8 | 63.8% | 0.91 |
| Ian 'motm' Hardy |
49 - 66 | -17 | 60.6 | 66.0% | 0.83 |
The final standings for the third ESEA x Fragadelphia Summer Cash Cup were:
1. Gaimin Gladiators - $4,000 and 4,000 Fragadelphia Points
2. Ga$ Money - $2,000 and 2,000 Fragadelphia Points
3-4. timbermen - 1,000 Fragadelphia Points
3-4. ONET4P - 1,000 Fragadelphia Points
There are no ESEA Cash Cups scheduled for the time being due to the upcoming IEM Rio Open Qualifiers, with the first of those set to begin on August 16th. Interested teams can register for that event here.
