Second round of ESEA qualifiers conclude
The second qualifiers for ESEA Intermediate, Main, and Advanced have concluded, with eight, four, and one teams qualifying, respectively. The first one to take place was the Intermediate qualifier on August 31st.
In the round of sixteen qualifying matches for the IM qualifier, Quantum Nut beat The Foo-Foo Snoos 2-0 (16-14 Inferno, 16-9 Mirage). The standout player was Pierson "PiersonW" Wong, who got a ridiculous 36 frags on the first map. Zeal also defeated ARMÉE ROUGE 2-0 in their RO16 match.
Mountain View beat Gerard's Gang in their last match 2-1. 2nd times a charm also defeated MalevoLent 2-0 (16-14 Inferno, 16-7 Mirage). Reece "MildlyUnique" Miller was the top fragger for 2TAC during their victory, picking up 24 kills both maps.
In the bottom half of the bracket, We Hear Everything beat yeah ok lol 2-1. purple drank also defeated Hentai Club 2-0.
Iniquity took down Crimson 2-0 (16-14 Overpass, 19-17 Inferno). The standout player of the match was Kaiden "drolytooB^" Miller, with 24 and 29 kills on the two maps respectively. The final round of sixteen match for the Intermediate qualifier saw Fifth beat The Clique 2-0.
Here are the eight teams to move to Intermediate:
Quantum Nut (AlphaCamel, Cookiies, GrimYeti, PiersonW, Jester_)
Zeal (PLx2, 1CACTUS, 1noah, 1GREG)- 2nd times a charm (Sotto, MildlyUnique, -Hunterrr, ASTROSKIES, Simpin)
- Mountain View (DBouly, Jinja, jh8, Hoffhiem, 902)
- purple drank (babypie, African, rOBB1e, weewoo, Jake_, CITY)
- We Hear Everything (zoko, BrentM, CREID, Grezz^, Underworld)
- Iniquity (FruitLoop, GradienTz, drolytooB^, coldcuts, Bunnyyy)
- Fifth (L0nely, Klaw, Vassoio, small_dude, Richii)
Just four teams were going to receive promotion via the Main qualifier, as such we'll touch on the quarterfinals of the tournament, where the real action occurred. The fantastically named Br(C)ock, they had a relatively comfortable series win over their opponents in Akatsuki. Starting with a strong 16-7 win on Dust2, which was followed up with a 16-6 win on Inferno to cement their place in Main for next season.
On the Family was the next team through, and their rather ridiculously sized roster had to deal with two close matches against Fat bois v2. The first map was an overtime thriller on Mirage, where they eventually came out 19-17 winners. The second map of Train was, pretty much, a repeat performance where they had to go to overtime yet again before claiming another 19-17 win.
Canadian squad Armée Rouge was next through, taking a close 2-1 win over goth boy clique, a team that featured Vireo.pro members Brenden "stellar" McGrath and Robert "robby" Brown who had spent the previous season in Open. The first map was a narrow 16-12 victory on Inferno. Mirage followed, and it was a 16-11 win for the clique, before a maximum round slog was seen on deciding map Dust2, which the red army narrowly won 16-14.
If you were a fan of overtimes, then let us introduce you to the game between Goomba squad and the simply named "idiot." Cache was the opening map, and it took two overtimes before a deadlock could be lifted, going the way of the squad for a 22-20 win. Overpass was a much more simple victory for their team, taking a relatively swift 16-8 win to head to Main.
The four teams receiving promotion to ESEA S29 Main are:
- Br(C)ock (btr, KiAr, Leroik, PNDLM)
- On the Family (HavoK-, kOZMIK, Haze-, Kunt, tw1zz)
Goomba squad (GodlyV, Swoozy, Top^)- Armée Rouge (smiex, KuavoX^, VolcaNnNnNnNnNnN, godJmB)
Finally, the Advanced qualifier went down yesterday, granting a single spot in the Advanced division. The final was between Fat Bois and FOCAL Point, in which FOCAL point won 2-0 (16-12 Cache, 16-5 Nuke). On Cache, Fat Bois got the lead in the first half of the game, but a strong CT side from FOCAL allowed them to mount a comeback and secure the map. Ezekiel "KmZ" Hughes was the main force from his team, providing consistent fragging on both halves.
FOCAL Point had a much better start on the second map, racking up a big 11-4 lead on the Terrorist side of Nuke. It was Bilal "SPAMMER" Ali who stepped up for his team this time, as FOCAL took the map decisively 16-6.
This makes FOCAL Point the third team after FURIA and myRevenge to qualify for the Advanced division. Interestingly, both SPAMMER and KmZ played Advanced last season with Uber to Your Crib and placed in the playoffs.
Here is FOCAL Points qualifying roster:
- FOCAL Point (SPAMMER, ^Mikey^, bobbytux, KmZ)
The ESEA season is set to begin on September 10th, so teams will have approximately until then to set their rosters.
