ImPerium, Kinship, RBG, and Hyper win opening MDL Relegation bouts
The first evening of ESEA MDL Season 34 Relegation has finished, seeing three matches played, and Buffdaddy's Paypal Team out of contention after choosing to forfeit the event. Hyper were the direct beneficiary of this, as they immediately progressed to play in one of the MDL-qualifying best-of-three series.
ImPerium on the other hand came to play and capitalized on a depleted Infinity roster that was utilizing coach Aldair "alone" Torres. The Americans jumped out to a 1-0 series lead thanks to a 28 kill performance from Carter "CarterJ" Richardson, while three of their players posted ADRs north of 100. Joel "tor1towOw" Rios Manrique was a cut above the rest of his Infinity teammates with 22 frags, but the South American side were ultimately outgunned by ImPerium's more balanced attack.
Things only got better for ImPerium on their own map pick of Nuke, as they jumped out to a 10-5 lead on the less favored T-side, then ran the score up to match point before Infinity could even get on the board in the second half. ImPerium would eventually convert their second match point into a map and series victory, while Ian "heretic" Carfora featured as the star of the show with 21 frags.
InfinityImPerium| Infinity |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Joel 'TORITO' Rios Manrique |
35 - 38 | -3 | 73.6 | 70.2% | 0.94 |
 Jesus 'sam_A' Taboada |
30 - 38 | -8 | 73.2 | 68.1% | 0.88 |
| Andres 'spamzzy' Correa |
26 - 39 | -13 | 75.7 | 72.3% | 0.87 |
 Francisco 'k1Nky' Alvarez |
28 - 37 | -9 | 54.3 | 66.0% | 0.76 |
| Aldair 'alone' Torres |
19 - 37 | -18 | 55.7 | 57.4% | 0.66 |
| ImPerium |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Carter 'CarterJ' Richardson |
48 - 31 | +17 | 100.8 | 74.5% | 1.56 |
| Reece 'Wilky' Wilkerson |
43 - 30 | +13 | 96.8 | 89.4% | 1.50 |
| Ian 'heretic' Carfora |
37 - 21 | +16 | 67.9 | 78.7% | 1.36 |
| James 'EllisoN' Ellison |
35 - 28 | +7 | 88.8 | 80.9% | 1.31 |
| Grant 'Burt^' Burt |
26 - 28 | -2 | 62.4 | 80.9% | 1.02 |
RBG squared off with timbermen (formerly Lethal Divide) in what ended up being the closest of the night's sweeps. On Mirage it was Colby "Walco" Walsh and Jerric "wiz" Jiang that would outduel Wyatt "snav" Phillippi and Shane "shane" Dressler to turn an 8-7 half that favored timbermen into a 29 round victory by way of a superior T-side for RBG.
wiz and Walco continued to catch fire on Inferno, combining for 50 kills as the Canadian side once again turned a halftime deficit into a regulation victory that fell just shy of going the distance. After losing the second half pistol RBG won seven rounds in a row, never looking back as they traded rounds and converted their third match point. Riley "violent" Levenson led the way with 20 frags for timbermen in the loss.
RBGtimbermen| RBG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jerric 'wiz' Jiang |
51 - 38 | +13 | 82.2 | 72.4% | 1.29 |
| Josh 'pwny' VanGorder |
36 - 31 | +5 | 70.2 | 72.4% | 1.17 |
 Colby 'Walco' Walsh |
46 - 40 | +6 | 85.8 | 65.5% | 1.15 |
| Jadan 'HexT' Postma |
38 - 40 | -2 | 72.9 | 79.3% | 1.05 |
| Austin 'gmanchew' Vieira |
30 - 38 | -8 | 67.8 | 72.4% | 0.91 |
| timbermen |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shane 'shane' Dressler |
40 - 43 | -3 | 73.1 | 72.4% | 1.02 |
| Wyatt 'snav' Phillippi |
39 - 38 | +1 | 65.5 | 72.4% | 1.02 |
| Riley 'violent' Levenson |
36 - 40 | -4 | 74.0 | 65.5% | 1.00 |
| Derek 'dare' Brown |
36 - 38 | -2 | 64.2 | 65.5% | 0.97 |
| Kyle 'KEL' Murray |
34 - 45 | -11 | 75.8 | 60.3% | 0.91 |
Kinship are looking to bounce back with a big result in ESEA MDL Season 34 Relegation after falling just a few rounds shy of IEM New York this past weekend. Anthony "CLASIA" Kearney got things started on the right foot by notching 36 frags, but Kinship were still only just able to turn a 14-14 scoreline into a regulation victory to take the 1-0 series lead. Bryce "PureR" Lovell and Sean "Inseaniac" Morrison combined for over 50 kills, but it wasn't enough to salvage the opening map.
Overpass is typically one of Thunder Logic's stronger picks, but Kinship dealt them the worst loss that they've had on the map in the last year's worth of recorded matches. CLASIA added 23 more frags to his map one total and Connor "chop" Sullivan got in on the action with 22 frags of his own. Inseaniac put up a team-best 14 kills as Thunder Logic were swept off the map and down to the lower bracket.
Thunder LogicKinship| Thunder Logic |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sean 'Inseaniac' Morrison |
40 - 37 | +3 | 77.8 | 72.0% | 1.10 |
| Bryce 'PureR' Lovell |
39 - 39 | +0 | 88.3 | 66.0% | 1.07 |
| Brandon 'Sharkie' Ly |
34 - 38 | -4 | 73.2 | 56.0% | 0.96 |
| Brian 'Brian2K' Ladron De Guevara |
24 - 41 | -17 | 56.7 | 66.0% | 0.69 |
| Andy 'Andersin' Collins |
19 - 38 | -19 | 47.8 | 56.0% | 0.60 |
| Kinship |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anthony 'CLASIA' Kearney |
59 - 25 | +34 | 103.7 | 80.0% | 1.70 |
| Koby 'kobruh' Higgs |
34 - 30 | +4 | 79.2 | 74.0% | 1.17 |
| Kyle 'Wolffe' Greenfield |
36 - 37 | -1 | 84.1 | 74.0% | 1.11 |
| Connor 'chop' Sullivan |
38 - 34 | +4 | 85.7 | 66.0% | 1.11 |
| Sean 'naes' Fontaine |
25 - 30 | -5 | 59.5 | 70.0% | 0.89 |
The action will continue tomorow night with two ESEA MDL Season 35 qualification matches in the upper bracket and one elimination match in the lower bracket, all scheduled to begin at 9:30PM EDT.
| RBG |
vs. | ImPerium |
| Kinship |
vs. | Hyper |
| Infinity |
vs. | timbermen |
