oNe best Extra Salt in ESEA Premier upper bracket; ChocoCheck, RBG eliminated
The third day of ESEA Premier Season 37 playoffs has concluded, seeing oNe prevail over Extra Salt in the upper bracket final in a 2-1 series victory. Meanwhile, paiN and Triumph saw to the elimination of ChocoCheck and RBG, respectively, in the lower bracket, and are now set to face off on Friday to decide who will take on Extra Salt in the consolidation final.
paiN had little difficulty in dispatching of ChocoCheck thanks to a stellar showing from Rafael "saffee" Costa, with the Brazilian team posting a 10-5 lead at the end of their CT-side effort on Inferno before closing out the map shortly into the second half, 16-10.
Nuke was even more dominant as paiN secured another 10-5 halftime scoreline, although this time around, they wasted even less time before bringing an end to the map to take the series win. saffee, who led the scoreboard for his team on both maps, ended the series with a 52-25 K-D (+27) and 106 ADR over the two maps.
paiNChocoCheck| paiN |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Rafael 'saffee' Costa |
52 - 25 | +27 | 106.3 | 87.5% | 1.76 |
| Rodrigo 'biguzera' Bittencourt |
40 - 29 | +11 | 91.4 | 85.4% | 1.34 |
| Gabriel 'NEKIZ' Schenato |
35 - 29 | +6 | 74.8 | 79.2% | 1.23 |
| Wesley 'hardzao' Lopes |
31 - 27 | +4 | 66.8 | 83.3% | 1.13 |
| Vinicios 'PKL' Coelho |
33 - 32 | +1 | 79.6 | 72.9% | 1.12 |
| ChocoCheck |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Christopher 'cJ dA K1nG' Jones |
41 - 36 | +5 | 97.0 | 66.7% | 1.15 |
| Dominick 'JazzPimp' Dimpfel |
36 - 43 | -7 | 85.6 | 64.6% | 0.97 |
| Danny 'cxzi' Strzelczyk |
27 - 39 | -12 | 72.1 | 56.2% | 0.82 |
| Zack 'XotiC' Elshani |
24 - 38 | -14 | 49.1 | 54.2% | 0.68 |
| Bobby 'stamina' Eitrem |
12 - 37 | -25 | 34.4 | 52.1% | 0.41 |
Triumph showed tenacity in their match against RBG, with the situation looking dire for the deer team early in the series as Colby "Walco" Walsh led his side to a swift 16-6 victory on Overpass - Triumph's map pick. A three-round head start on Inferno for Triumph gave way to a 9-6 scoreline in favor of RBG, and an additional two rounds following the side swap made it seem as if the writing was on the wall for David "cynic" Polster and company.
However, Triumph fought back and kept pace with RBG to pull ahead at 14-12, but were left on a shoddy buy as Walco's side clawed back two rounds of their own to tie the score. The Tec-9 reigned supreme for Triumph to grant their side match point and an ensuing map win, but their momentum was lost at the onset on Nuke, where RBG were dominant in the first half for a 10-5 lead. Again, a comeback was in the cards as Triumph put up a stalwart defense of their own, winning eleven rounds in a row to steal away the series and send RBG packing from playoffs.
TriumphRBG| Triumph |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| David 'cynic' Polster |
62 - 52 | +10 | 85.9 | 71.8% | 1.16 |
| Austin 'Cooper' Abadir |
62 - 61 | +1 | 76.0 | 64.1% | 1.08 |
| Tyler 'tweiss' Weiss |
47 - 52 | -5 | 72.5 | 66.7% | 0.97 |
| Brendan 'Bwills' Williams |
43 - 56 | -13 | 68.9 | 71.8% | 0.91 |
| Jeff 'RZU' Ngo |
42 - 57 | -15 | 58.7 | 65.4% | 0.81 |
| RBG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Colby 'Walco' Walsh |
64 - 52 | +12 | 85.8 | 76.9% | 1.28 |
| Connor 'chop' Sullivan |
55 - 50 | +5 | 75.9 | 76.9% | 1.17 |
| Jadan 'HexT' Postma |
57 - 49 | +8 | 76.7 | 78.2% | 1.14 |
| Jerric 'wiz' Jiang |
53 - 55 | -2 | 76.6 | 70.5% | 1.04 |
| Anthony 'CLASIA' Kearney |
49 - 51 | -2 | 69.9 | 73.1% | 0.95 |
In the upper bracket final, Extra Salt were handed a loss by oNe, who came out swinging on their own pick of Dust2. After the two teams were initially tied at 4-4, oNe took firm control, posting an 11-4 scoreline at halftime before winning four off the break to immediately attain match point before putting a halt to Extra Salt's comeback effort to take the map win. Ancient proved to be an entirely one-sided affair as Extra Salt were clearly the better side, running up a 10-5 T-side lead and converting the map in the second half, 16-6, to force a Nuke decider.
There, the teams remained deadlocked at halftime, with oNe inching ahead 8-7 at the end of their defensive effort. Despite taking the first three rounds in the second half, the situation began to look dire for oNe as Extra Salt cleaned up four rounds in a row, losing only one player in the process. However, the economic lead proved to not be enough for Extra Salt, who were put on the back foot as oNe regained the lead and refused to let go, conceding just one round en route to a 16-12 victory to close out the series.
Extra SaltTeamOne| Extra Salt |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek |
59 - 50 | +9 | 86.4 | 74.4% | 1.24 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
61 - 51 | +10 | 84.4 | 74.4% | 1.20 |
| Justin 'FaNg' Coakley |
57 - 50 | +7 | 76.6 | 79.5% | 1.14 |
| Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou |
50 - 53 | -3 | 70.3 | 76.9% | 1.08 |
 Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado |
45 - 45 | +0 | 62.5 | 69.2% | 1.01 |
| TeamOne |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matheus 'prt' Scuvero |
60 - 57 | +3 | 77.8 | 59.0% | 1.06 |
 Mario 'malbsMd' Samayoa |
56 - 58 | -2 | 78.3 | 67.9% | 1.03 |
| Pedro 'Maluk3' Campos |
53 - 51 | +2 | 70.6 | 67.9% | 0.99 |
| Matheus 'pesadelo' Panisset |
41 - 52 | -11 | 61.6 | 61.5% | 0.87 |
| Enzo 'xns' Henrique |
38 - 56 | -18 | 55.1 | 64.1% | 0.79 |
With their win, oNe are through to the grand finals of ESEA Premier Season 37, where they will have a one-map advantage in the best-of-five series where a spot in ESL Pro League Season 14 will be on the line. Triumph and paiN will face off in the lower bracket final tomorrow at 7 PM EST, with the winner going on to face Extra Salt on Saturday in the consolidation final.
