Forsaken carve path of destruction to ESEA Advanced S46 finals
The upper bracket of ESEA Advanced Season 46 playoffs has concluded, seeing Forsaken carve a path of destruction on their way to the finals as expected. As this season of Advanced offers no relegation slots, the overarching narrative of this season revolves around who will win playoffs and take the sole ESL Challenger League spot for next season.
To that end, amidst a field of relatively underwhelming squads, the only two teams worth any true consideration at the start of playoffs to win the season outright were Forsaken and Limitless.
Looking at Forsaken's run, they have proven themselves a cut above the rest of the division, taking down CCG and ClayMakers with little trouble before receiving a forfeit win against Spate. This culminated with them facing niisesports in the upper bracket finals, and despite the team featuring some known quantities in NA, Forsaken easily brushed them aside with two quick 16-5 wins on Mirage and Overpass.
Forsakenniise| Forsaken |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Josh 'JBa' Barutt |
53 - 14 | +39 | 113.2 | 88.1% | 2.00 |
| Gage 'Infinite' Green |
33 - 21 | +12 | 81.5 | 90.5% | 1.39 |
| Danny 'cxzi' Strzelczyk |
25 - 28 | -3 | 88.9 | 76.2% | 1.16 |
| Jerric 'wiz' Jiang |
30 - 25 | +5 | 76.1 | 69.0% | 1.15 |
 Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz |
25 - 25 | +0 | 61.4 | 71.4% | 1.05 |
| niise |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kaitlin 'Keiti' Boop |
27 - 34 | -7 | 92.7 | 69.0% | 1.00 |
| Sam 'Noxio' Goodwin |
28 - 35 | -7 | 66.8 | 66.7% | 0.85 |
 Sebastian 'Florence' Ogarev |
23 - 31 | -8 | 53.1 | 61.9% | 0.72 |
| Benjamin 'niise' Mauldin |
18 - 34 | -16 | 49.0 | 59.5% | 0.61 |
| Noah 'flixxy' French |
16 - 32 | -16 | 59.1 | 52.4% | 0.61 |
Meanwhile, with Limitless having almost as high expectations, they have looked worse for wear. After besting Pantsu and Hound, Limitless shocked by dropping a 2-1 series to niisesports to be forced down into the lower bracket. As such, they will have to face down three more teams in order to climb back up the bracket for their supposedly fated finals showdown against Forsaken.
While it is certainly doable for a team of Limitless' pedigree, they now have no margin of error while their run also raises questions about how they will fare against Forsaken should they make the finals.
Limitless will take their first step in the lower bracket against ClayMakers tonight at 08:00PM while Forsaken have until October 8th until their next match.
