Thunder Logic grounded by Serac, a breakthrough for In The Lab in MDL Relegation
ESEA MDL Season 33 Relegation kicked off last night, and saw ETHEREAL, Serac, In The Lab, and blood, sweat, and tears all find themselves just one series from MDL berths for next season. On the other side of the coin, Faint, Thunder Logic, Trivium, and Rebel (formerly timbermen) will all have some work to do in the lower bracket to keep their MDL dreams alive.
ETHEREAL wrapped up the series with their familiar Advanced foe in two maps, but Faint definitely kept things interesting. Dennison "fdeN" Fong led the way on Mirage with 27 kills and a 1.79 rating, but it was Austin "RenZ" Dickman that had to step up with 35 kills of his own on Nuke to get ETHEREAL over the line in a double-overtime affair.
Ezekiel "KmZ" Hughes was able to stay level with RenZ, with both players amassing 56 kills in the series, but it wasn't enough to keep Faint out of the lower bracket.
FaintETHEREAL| Faint |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Alex 'vek' Voynov |
50 - 53 | -3 | 88.5 | 66.2% | 1.13 |
 Ezekiel 'KmZ' Hughes |
56 - 47 | +9 | 73.3 | 66.2% | 1.11 |
| George 'Powerzz' Yaede |
53 - 51 | +2 | 84.6 | 64.7% | 1.09 |
| Brian 'Brian2K' Ladron De Guevara |
39 - 51 | -12 | 60.5 | 75.0% | 0.91 |
| Aaron 'Aaron' Thao |
23 - 51 | -28 | 55.1 | 60.3% | 0.67 |
| ETHEREAL |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dennison 'fdeN' Fong |
46 - 44 | +2 | 86.8 | 85.3% | 1.26 |
| Austin 'RenZ' Dickman |
56 - 44 | +12 | 85.4 | 79.4% | 1.22 |
| Malick 'dangle' Abid |
52 - 46 | +6 | 83.4 | 67.6% | 1.19 |
| Tony 'w0w' Zachary |
53 - 43 | +10 | 72.8 | 73.5% | 1.13 |
| Shawn 'Magowi' O'Malley |
45 - 44 | +1 | 59.2 | 76.5% | 1.05 |
Sean "Inseaniac" Morrison was a cut above the rest of the server with 75 kills and a 1.36 rating, but it couldn't prevent Thunder Logic from being the first MDL side to lose to an Advanced opponent in relegation.
Serac strung together ten rounds on their second half CT-side to take control on Mirage, but Thunder Logic were able to bounce back and secure their own map pick with eight rounds on each side of Overpass.
Serac started strong on the T-side of Nuke, securing a slim 8-7 lead as the unfavored faction. It looked like Thunder Logic would replicate the feat as they started the second half with six straight rounds of their own, but then Serac rattled off eight straight to secure map and series point.
Thunder LogicSerac| Thunder Logic |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sean 'Inseaniac' Morrison |
75 - 49 | +26 | 90.8 | 79.1% | 1.36 |
| Bryce 'PureR' Lovell |
70 - 70 | +0 | 92.9 | 69.8% | 1.17 |
| Andy 'Andersin' Collins |
65 - 59 | +6 | 82.1 | 65.1% | 1.15 |
| Brandon 'Sharkie' Ly |
53 - 61 | -8 | 62.5 | 75.6% | 0.93 |
| Mark 'Gillberg' P. |
41 - 61 | -20 | 56.5 | 65.1% | 0.79 |
| Serac |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frank 'Laxufy' Zeolla |
61 - 59 | +2 | 80.3 | 73.3% | 1.12 |
| Tyler 'nyuu' Delbene |
63 - 61 | +2 | 74.8 | 67.4% | 1.08 |
| Cameron 'Cam' Stewart |
68 - 69 | -1 | 79.4 | 73.3% | 1.06 |
| Nicholas 'stealthy' Petrakos |
58 - 60 | -2 | 73.2 | 67.4% | 1.03 |
| Chris 'Rebo' Heindel |
50 - 56 | -6 | 67.7 | 74.4% | 1.00 |
Mirage was fairly straightforward for In The Lab, as both Matthew "nero" Seymour and Eric "Kanpeki" Xu put up 24 kills, while Derek "Hendy" Hendrixson was the lone bright spot for Trivium with 23 of his own. Hendy was also the only player on Trivium that managed to rate higher than any of the players for In The Lab.
Train ended up being super close towards the end, as In The Lab turned a 13-6 deficit into a 15-13 lead on their second half CT-side. The two squads would eventually trade the final two rounds of the series, as In The Lab held off a server-leading 28 frag performance from Trivium's Daniel "bokumbop" Yoo.
In The LabTrivium| In The Lab |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eric 'Kanpeki' Xu |
45 - 37 | +8 | 78.1 | 71.4% | 1.22 |
| Norman 'contii' Yeung |
38 - 34 | +4 | 82.4 | 78.6% | 1.17 |
| Matthew 'nero' Seymour |
37 - 30 | +7 | 67.4 | 71.4% | 1.15 |
| Wayne 'castro' Einarsson |
38 - 32 | +6 | 66.6 | 73.2% | 1.10 |
| Damian 'EMIYA' Boulware |
36 - 35 | +1 | 77.2 | 71.4% | 1.08 |
| Trivium |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Derek 'Hendy' Hendrixson |
47 - 40 | +7 | 85.6 | 71.4% | 1.12 |
| Daniel 'bokumbop' Yoo |
40 - 41 | -1 | 78.2 | 66.1% | 1.04 |
| Walker 'walker' Harris |
33 - 34 | -1 | 51.1 | 67.9% | 0.87 |
| Brett 'brett' Rhein |
24 - 38 | -14 | 54.4 | 64.3% | 0.73 |
| Wyatt 'Top^' Beakler |
24 - 41 | -17 | 60.4 | 62.5% | 0.72 |
Rebel managed to wrestle Overpass away from blood, sweat, and tears in overtime, in spite of the fact that Wyatt "snav" Phillippi was the only member of the team that managed a positive K/D.
After blood, sweat, and tears stole back Rebel's map pick, Train, it was a big 24 frag performance from Sebastian "retchy" Tropiano that comfortably sealed things for the majority-Canadian side in the Nuke decider. Kevin "4pack" Przypasniak and Ryan "shanks" Ngo each contributed 19 and 18 kills, respectively, to supplement retchy's MVP's performance.
blood, sweat, and tearsRebel| blood, sweat, and tears |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sebastian 'retchy' Tropiano |
73 - 58 | +15 | 92.0 | 76.7% | 1.28 |
| Jimmy 'Marved' Nguyen |
67 - 52 | +15 | 83.5 | 79.1% | 1.20 |
| Ryan 'shanks' Ngo |
63 - 55 | +8 | 79.6 | 81.4% | 1.18 |
| Kevin '4pack' Przypasniak |
69 - 59 | +10 | 80.0 | 67.4% | 1.14 |
| D. 'v1king' M. |
58 - 49 | +9 | 73.9 | 75.6% | 1.11 |
| Rebel |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wyatt 'snav' Phillippi |
67 - 63 | +4 | 92.5 | 67.4% | 1.18 |
| Derek 'dare' Brown |
62 - 67 | -5 | 72.3 | 73.3% | 1.04 |
| Shane 'shane' Dressler |
51 - 66 | -15 | 63.7 | 65.1% | 0.88 |
| Kyle 'KEL' Murray |
47 - 64 | -17 | 62.1 | 66.3% | 0.82 |
| Jake 'eptima' Allen |
46 - 71 | -25 | 63.3 | 65.1% | 0.76 |
The action continues in the second round of the upper bracket tonight, where four teams will punch their ticket to MDL Season 34.
Tonight's four concurrent matchups, set to start at 7:30 PM EDT, are:
| Alcoholics Anonymous |
vs. | ETHEREAL |
 Infinity |
vs. | Serac |
| Oceanus |
vs. | In The Lab |
| New England Whalers |
vs. | blood, sweat, and tears |
