Ze Pug Godz best Positive Vibes Only to win second ESEA Summer Cash Cup
The second ESEA Summer Cash Cup has concluded, seeing Ze Pug Godz win the event after besting Positive Vibes Only in the finals. This event notably marks Sebastian "seb" Bucki's return to the server as he stood-in for Austin "Cooper-" Abadir on account of the latter being unavailable.
With a much improved turnout compared to the inaugural cash cup, this iteration of the event featured the likes of Kinship, New England Whalers, Positive Vibes Only, and RBG among the 97 teams that signed up for the open bracket.
The first three rounds of the open bracket went largely as expected, with the most notable team exiting at this point being Supernova, who were bested 16-11 on Mirage by Mike Tysons. In round four, arguably the largest upset of the event took place as number one seed Yeah were eliminated by Eros following a close 16-14 win on Inferno. Round four also saw Cameron "cam" Kern and Ryan "ryann" Welsh's Gorilla Gang sent packing following a 16-5 loss to Eclipse while Kinship eliminated Big Chillin 16-13 on Train.
In round five there were a number of surprising results as Rebirth's new lineup crushed Rugratz with a 16-5 on Mirage. RBG also picked up an upset win, taking down New England Whalers 16-13 on Train. While they didn't end up winning the match, Kinship also performed well against Positive Vibes Only, taking the team to overtime before faltering and dropping Train 19-17.
In round six, Eclipse's new-look roster continued to pick up wins as they narrowly overcame Rebirth 16-14 on Nuke while Positive Vibes Only struggled against RBG before overpowering them to claim a 16-13 win on Inferno.
After close maps in round six, the semifinals ended up being extremely one-sided as Ze Pug Godz made quick work of Eclipse, besting the team 16-8 on Inferno and 16-12 on Nuke. The series between ex-Recon 5 and Positive Vibes Only was even more one-sided than the previous series, as Positive Vibes Only crushed Soham "valens" Chowdhury's lineup 16-4 and 16-6 on Train and Mirage, respectively.
The grand finals started off with Positive Vibes Only in the lead on Overpass, as Brendan "Bwills" Williams helped power his team to a 9-6 lead on their T-side. Their lead was short-lived however, as Ze Pug Godz put on a stellar T-side that only saw them concede three rounds to their MDL opposition before taking the map 16-12.
After ending Overpass in a dominant fashion, Ze Pug Godz carried the momentum onto Inferno, putting Positive Vibes Only feet to the fire as IGL Jordan "Zellsis" Montemurro led the way for his team to win their T-side 11-4 before taking the map 16-6 without much trouble.
Ze Pug GodzPositive Vibes Only| Ze Pug Godz |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Will 'dazzLe' Loafman |
51 - 34 | +17 | 109.9 | 82.0% | 1.62 |
| Jordan 'Zellsis' Montemurro |
39 - 28 | +11 | 82.1 | 82.0% | 1.34 |
 Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado |
28 - 32 | -4 | 74.9 | 86.0% | 1.15 |
| Sebastian 'seb' Bucki |
38 - 34 | +4 | 76.7 | 74.0% | 1.11 |
| Gage 'Infinite' Green |
33 - 31 | +2 | 64.4 | 74.0% | 1.05 |
| Positive Vibes Only |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brendan 'Bwills' Williams |
40 - 34 | +6 | 94.0 | 76.0% | 1.22 |
| David 'cynic' Polster |
29 - 37 | -8 | 67.6 | 76.0% | 0.92 |
| Danny 'cxzi' Strzelczyk |
35 - 41 | -6 | 74.8 | 60.0% | 0.89 |
| Wesley 'viz' Harris |
29 - 37 | -8 | 59.4 | 64.0% | 0.84 |
 Justin 'FaNg' Coakley |
25 - 40 | -15 | 56.1 | 66.0% | 0.72 |
The top four teams for the second ESEA Summer Cash Cup are:
1. Ze Pug Godz - $3,000
2. Positive Vibes Only - $1,000
3-4. Eclipse
3-4. ex-Recon 5
Ze Pug Godz and Positive Vibes Only next event will be ESEA MDL Season 35, which is set to begin in a little over a week on August 31st.
