Iron Blood secure ESEA Autumn Cash Cup victory
Day two of the first ESEA Cash Cup of the Fall has come to a close, seeing Iron Blood triumph over Brazilian side Sojoga to lock down the $9,000 grand prize. This is an improvement from the squad's last Cash Cup showing, where Iron Blood narrowly fell to ChocoCheck in the finals.
Iron Blood claimed a spot in the second day of this Cash Cup after finishing day one with a phenomenal comeback from a 3-12 deficit against Mythic. With the wind in their sails, Iron Blood marched on to face the invited side of ex-Detonate in the semifinals.
That series kicked off on ex-Detonate's pick of Nuke, where Iron Blood maintained the lead throughout the first half on the defense, heading into the T-side with a 9-6 scoreline. Despite a pistol round win to kick off the second half, ex-Detonate began to claw it back, eventually tying things up 12-12, before Iron Blood rallied to steal their opponent's pick 16-13.
The second map, Overpass started similarly, with Iron Blood leading by a fairly wide margin for most of the half before ex-Detonate caught up to narrow it a 9-6 half. This time, however, Iron Blood did not allow ex-Detonate to close the gap in the second half, as they finished the map 16-7, securing their spot in the grand finals.
Task Force 141Iron Blood| Task Force 141 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Connor 'jermanji' Buckles |
47 - 42 | +5 | 93.4 | 67.3% | 1.23 |
 Israel 'LEARSI' Vargas |
40 - 38 | +2 | 87.8 | 71.2% | 1.17 |
| Kyle 'Wolffe' Greenfield |
33 - 38 | -5 | 69.4 | 73.1% | 0.86 |
| Sam 'Noxio' Goodwin |
25 - 42 | -17 | 60.6 | 50.0% | 0.65 |
| Landon 'landmaz' Lawrence |
20 - 39 | -19 | 46.0 | 55.8% | 0.63 |
| Iron Blood |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kyle 'KEL' Murray |
50 - 30 | +20 | 90.3 | 76.9% | 1.36 |
| Wyatt 'snav' Phillippi |
38 - 31 | +7 | 88.6 | 73.1% | 1.23 |
| Derek 'dare' Brown |
42 - 36 | +6 | 84.5 | 73.1% | 1.22 |
| Damian 'EMIYA' Boulware |
38 - 32 | +6 | 79.4 | 69.2% | 1.11 |
| Fern 'intra' Hak |
31 - 36 | -5 | 66.7 | 63.5% | 0.98 |
The matchup between Iron Blood and Sojoga kicked off on Sojoga's pick of Nuke, which ended up being a far different affair than Iron Blood's time against ex-Detonate on the same map. Iron Blood were blown out completely in the first half, as the Brazilians posted 12-3 lead on the offense. Iron Blood would not repeat the miraculous comeback they had against Mythic earlier in the event as Sojoga locked down their pick with a 16-8 scoreline.
Now on the back foot, Iron Blood looked to turn things around on their pick of Overpass. The Americans had a slow start, as Sojoga racked up an 8-4 lead on the defense before Iron Blood rallied the last three rounds to tighten the deficit to only a single round. Sojoga went on to secure four of the first five rounds of the second half to post a 12-8 lead, just four rounds away from winning the Cash Cup. Iron Blood were undeterred by this, as they strung together eight rounds straight to claim the lead and eventually the map with a 16-12 score.
This turn of events left Sojoga licking their wounds after missing out on an easy two-map victory. Derek "dare" Brown was red-hot on the deciding map of Mirage, as he powered Iron Blood to a 16-5 victory with an unbelievable 2.67 rating, racking up 35 kills across only 21 rounds. With the victory on Mirage secured thanks to dare's impressive showing, Iron Blood could finally lay claim to the Cash Cup's $9,000 grand prize.
Iron BloodSojoga| Iron Blood |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Derek 'dare' Brown |
79 - 46 | +33 | 111.1 | 82.2% | 1.67 |
| Wyatt 'snav' Phillippi |
48 - 43 | +5 | 71.4 | 71.2% | 1.06 |
| Damian 'EMIYA' Boulware |
48 - 47 | +1 | 70.6 | 64.4% | 0.98 |
| Kyle 'KEL' Murray |
38 - 47 | -9 | 60.1 | 71.2% | 0.93 |
| Fern 'intra' Hak |
38 - 51 | -13 | 61.4 | 61.6% | 0.81 |
| Sojoga |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matheus 'prt' Scuvero |
65 - 54 | +11 | 93.6 | 76.7% | 1.25 |
| Paulo 'land1n' Felipe |
50 - 50 | +0 | 71.3 | 64.4% | 1.03 |
| Alef 'tatazin' Pereira |
41 - 46 | -5 | 67.4 | 69.9% | 0.99 |
| Matheus 'mawth' Gonçalves |
44 - 49 | -5 | 63.2 | 64.4% | 0.95 |
| Denis 'dzt' Fischer |
34 - 52 | -18 | 56.3 | 67.1% | 0.81 |
ESEA Cash Cup action will not be returning for a few weeks, as the next Cash Cup of the Autumn series is not set to start until October 15th. Interested teams can sign up for the event here.
