Triton and Villainous promoted; Mythic and Big Chillin defend Premier spots
ESEA Premier Season 37 Relegation has wrapped up, seeing Triton and Villainous qualify to Premier for the first time while Mythic and Big Chillin have defended their spots and will be returning for Season 38.
The relegation bracket began on July 12th with CRONEM forfeiting their match against Triton due to Jet "jet-" Gao being occupied with a VALORANT tournament. CRONEM went on to forfeit their match the next day for the same reason. The remainder of the day one matches played without any issues, as Big Chillin kicked things off with a strong 2-0 victory over X13 while Villainous made surprisingly quick work of CENSRD with a 2-0 victory.
The final series of day one saw Mythic pull out a narrow 2-1 victory over Coldest Riding (formerly Cold Ass Riding) with the two teams trading map picks before Mythic won Vertigo 25-21 in triple overtime.
MythicColdest Riders| Mythic |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 David 'DAVEY' Stafford |
81 - 66 | +15 | 87.9 | 78.6% | 1.25 |
 Bradley 'Slugy' Kohler |
83 - 66 | +17 | 87.5 | 74.5% | 1.21 |
| Erik 'fl0m' Flom |
69 - 67 | +2 | 73.9 | 65.3% | 1.05 |
| Josiah 'JoJo' Jimenez |
70 - 69 | +1 | 71.7 | 66.3% | 1.00 |
| Alexander 'LeX' Deily |
47 - 82 | -35 | 65.5 | 64.3% | 0.71 |
| Coldest Riders |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Connor 'jermanji' Buckles |
75 - 64 | +11 | 80.3 | 75.5% | 1.19 |
| Landon 'landmaz' Lawrence |
73 - 74 | -1 | 79.0 | 77.6% | 1.10 |
| Josh 'sava9e' Lundquist |
66 - 67 | -1 | 74.4 | 73.5% | 1.06 |
| Marco 'Pol0' Hernandez |
65 - 78 | -13 | 81.5 | 70.4% | 1.03 |
| Andrew 'Drew' Warkentin |
70 - 71 | -1 | 74.4 | 65.3% | 1.00 |
Moving into day two, Mythic were denied a clean run back into Premier as Triton claimed a close 2-1 victory over the stream team thanks to a standout performance across the series by McKinley "Cyrix" Hollison. Notably this will be the first time in Premier for all five players while Tianyi "Fr3nk1e" He has become the first Chinese player to qualify for the division.
TritonMythic| Triton |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| McKinley 'Cyrix' Hollison |
91 - 63 | +28 | 103.7 | 75.9% | 1.47 |
| Junjie 'Gank88' Lin |
65 - 60 | +5 | 76.9 | 78.2% | 1.14 |
| Kyle 'Just2EZ' Tan |
60 - 62 | -2 | 82.5 | 71.3% | 1.09 |
 Tianyi 'Fr3nk1e' He |
50 - 65 | -15 | 62.6 | 63.2% | 0.85 |
| Sean 'Subarashii' Tuttle |
47 - 65 | -18 | 68.7 | 65.5% | 0.84 |
| Mythic |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bradley 'Slugy' Kohler |
78 - 62 | +16 | 91.1 | 78.2% | 1.30 |
| Erik 'fl0m' Flom |
69 - 57 | +12 | 83.3 | 79.3% | 1.25 |
| David 'DAVEY' Stafford |
66 - 60 | +6 | 82.6 | 71.3% | 1.14 |
| Josiah 'JoJo' Jimenez |
54 - 65 | -11 | 67.3 | 73.6% | 0.95 |
| Alexander 'LeX' Deily |
47 - 69 | -22 | 70.3 | 65.5% | 0.90 |
The second upper bracket series between Big Chillin and Villainous saw the latter start the series in the lead as they crushed Big Chillin 16-2 on Inferno. Down 1-0 in the series Big Chillin managed to stay alive on Dust2, winning it in a close 16-13 fashion before pulling a comeback on Ancient to win the series 2-1 and reclaim their Premier spot.
Big ChillinVillainous| Big Chillin |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blake 'Elk' Swinson |
48 - 45 | +3 | 70.8 | 77.3% | 1.12 |
| Devin 'Xzen' Barber |
54 - 57 | -3 | 90.6 | 62.7% | 1.06 |
| Brendan 'Melloh' Mello |
47 - 54 | -7 | 71.1 | 69.3% | 0.96 |
| Michael 'Munk' Klotz |
47 - 56 | -9 | 65.2 | 64.0% | 0.91 |
| Matt 'dvl' Buechel |
48 - 59 | -11 | 69.2 | 54.7% | 0.85 |
| Alex 'heaty' G |
8 - 14 | -6 | 54.3 | 72.2% | 0.78 |
| Villainous |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jason 'jason' Garcia |
62 - 46 | +16 | 85.7 | 72.0% | 1.30 |
| Matthew 'Cryptic' Whitmore |
66 - 56 | +10 | 95.1 | 73.3% | 1.28 |
| Ahmed 'ayy' Mahmoud |
58 - 48 | +10 | 77.1 | 80.0% | 1.15 |
| Umar 'Umar' Qaiser |
52 - 50 | +2 | 77.5 | 69.3% | 1.03 |
 Israel 'LEARSI' Vargas |
44 - 54 | -10 | 67.1 | 76.0% | 0.95 |
In lower bracket round one, the only series to be played thanks to CRONEM forfeiting saw X13 stay alive with a 2-1 victory over CENSRD in what ended up being the team's final performance. CENSRD began the series by winning Inferno, their opponent's map pick, 16-13 before fumbling their own map pick, Nuke, allowing X13 to win it 25-23 and force the series onto Overpass.
Despite a close 8-7 opening half, CENSRD were finally bested once X13 moved onto their CT-side, as the Advanced team only conceded four more rounds before taking the map 16-12 and ending CENSRD's hopes of staying together.
X13CENSRD| X13 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| John 'JTMythic' Timmermann |
83 - 72 | +11 | 86.2 | 70.5% | 1.20 |
| Matthew 'd4rty' Paplawskas |
69 - 77 | -8 | 72.9 | 69.5% | 0.97 |
| Adam 'freshie' Paterson |
70 - 78 | -8 | 67.8 | 66.7% | 0.95 |
 Aidan 'Feral' Wood |
61 - 78 | -17 | 63.2 | 66.7% | 0.90 |
| Devin 'AtomiK' Ferrell |
59 - 81 | -22 | 60.3 | 62.9% | 0.83 |
| CENSRD |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Christopher 'Swahn' Swahn |
87 - 66 | +21 | 86.6 | 71.4% | 1.23 |
| David 'Delta9' Shafer |
87 - 69 | +18 | 83.0 | 79.0% | 1.23 |
| Nicholas 'hate' Young |
81 - 65 | +16 | 85.6 | 73.3% | 1.20 |
| Sam 'Noxio' Goodwin |
68 - 72 | -4 | 72.1 | 75.2% | 0.98 |
| Edward 'kber' Vaudry |
62 - 72 | -10 | 64.5 | 70.5% | 0.92 |
In the final round of relegation, Mythic were the first team to claim a spot in Premier in the lower bracket, as they pulled off a competitive 2-0 victory over X13. Starting on Overpass, Mythic narrowly won the map 16-14 after battling back from a 16-8 deficit thanks to strong performances from Josiah "JoJo" Jimenez and David "DAVEY" Stafford.
The second map in the series, Ancient, was more cut and dry in Mythic's favor, as they maintained a firm grasp on the lead after winning their T-side 11-4, ultimately taking the map 16-11.
MythicX13| Mythic |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| David 'DAVEY' Stafford |
52 - 39 | +13 | 98.2 | 84.2% | 1.46 |
| Bradley 'Slugy' Kohler |
47 - 39 | +8 | 84.9 | 70.2% | 1.18 |
| Josiah 'JoJo' Jimenez |
36 - 47 | -11 | 82.7 | 73.7% | 1.06 |
| Alexander 'LeX' Deily |
39 - 38 | +1 | 71.6 | 73.7% | 1.06 |
| Erik 'fl0m' Flom |
37 - 40 | -3 | 72.6 | 80.7% | 1.06 |
| X13 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matthew 'd4rty' Paplawskas |
49 - 42 | +7 | 84.9 | 71.9% | 1.17 |
| John 'JTMythic' Timmermann |
45 - 42 | +3 | 89.1 | 75.4% | 1.17 |
| Devin 'AtomiK' Ferrell |
38 - 43 | -5 | 74.7 | 73.7% | 1.04 |
| Adam 'freshie' Paterson |
35 - 44 | -9 | 68.5 | 73.7% | 0.92 |
| Aidan 'Feral' Wood |
34 - 40 | -6 | 66.2 | 64.9% | 0.88 |
The final Premier spot was decided over the course of three maps as Villainous battled from a map deficit to win their series 2-1 over Coldest Riding. Coldest Riding kicked the series off by winning their map pick, Mirage, 16-10 before Villainous evened the series up by winning their map pick, Inferno, 16-8.
With the series tied up, Nuke started off competitive as Villainous won their T-side 8-7. However, they rapidly pulled away from their opposition in the second half, as they only conceded one more round before winning Nuke 16-8, winning the series, and taking the final Premier spot.
VillainousColdest Riders| Villainous |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matthew 'Cryptic' Whitmore |
65 - 47 | +18 | 100.1 | 78.4% | 1.45 |
| Israel 'LEARSI' Vargas |
67 - 40 | +27 | 93.0 | 77.0% | 1.44 |
| Jason 'jason' Garcia |
61 - 48 | +13 | 78.6 | 74.3% | 1.19 |
| Ahmed 'ayy' Mahmoud |
43 - 47 | -4 | 66.0 | 77.0% | 1.03 |
| Umar 'Umar' Qaiser |
38 - 49 | -11 | 55.2 | 68.9% | 0.91 |
| Coldest Riders |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marco 'Pol0' Hernandez |
56 - 53 | +3 | 80.9 | 63.5% | 1.05 |
| Josh 'sava9e' Lundquist |
55 - 52 | +3 | 72.6 | 64.9% | 0.99 |
| Andrew 'Drew' Warkentin |
41 - 54 | -13 | 65.6 | 70.3% | 0.89 |
| Landon 'landmaz' Lawrence |
39 - 57 | -18 | 62.9 | 68.9% | 0.84 |
| Connor 'jermanji' Buckles |
40 - 59 | -19 | 63.8 | 68.9% | 0.81 |
The almost complete team list for ESEA Premier Season 38 looks as follows:
 Extra Salt |
paiN |
| Triumph |
RBG |
| ChocoCheck |
GGPR |
| Party Astronauts |
Third Impact |
| Secret Club |
Recon 5 |
| Triton |
Big Chillin |
| Villainous |
Mythic |
| Verum |
TBA |
As mentioned above, the team list is currently incomplete as there is one final outstanding spot that ESEA have yet to comment on. It will likely be settled via a fifth-place decider between X13 and Coldest Riding on a future date. Additionally, as previously reported by Dust2.us, ChocoCheck's participation in Season 38 is looking unlikely as they've lost two player in recent days and Christopher "cJ" Jones is unlikely to be playing this season.
