FURIA and Drip or Drown to meet in NSG Eastern Conference Championship grand final
FURIA and Drip or Drown are the two finalists at N3rd Street Gamers' $30,000 Eastern Conference Championship finals, having picked up wins over Singularity and Vireo.pro, respectively.
FURIA were the first to net themselves a spot in the finals, defeating Singularity 2-1 (11-16 Cache, 16-9 Overpass, 16-6 Nuke) in the first semifinal of the day.
The matchup was not without controversy, with Jordan "Zellsis" Montemurro, Josh "oSee" Ohm, and Singularity's coach Jared "MAC-1" Schneider all taking to Twitter after the match to express frustration at the tournament organizer due to a bug allowing players to use the radar to see through smokes.
The Singularity players went on to say that they held no ill-will towards FURIA as the two teams had agreed not to abuse the bug prior to the match, but were incredibly frustrated that the bug had no been fixed after three days of discussion.
In a reply to MAC-1, ESEA community manager Mark "Boq" Wilson said that the admins at the event had tried implementing a fix, but a recent update to CS:GO may have broken the patch. Jake "kaboose" McDonald and Michael "agM" Abood were also seen in the replies, saying that the same issue existed at GEXCon, Toyko in Tulsa, and Fragadelphia 12 earlier in the year.
All that being said, Singularity still managed to take a map off of FURIA, opening up the series with a 12-3 T side half on Cache before eventually closing out the map 16-11. FURIA were quick to reply on their own map pick of Overpass, mustering eleven rounds on their CT side and taking the series to the deciding map Nuke with a 16-9 win.
The dominant first half scoreline trend continued as FURIA put up ten T side rounds on Nuke, giving Singularity little room to work with as the sides swapped and quickly closing out the series with a 16-6 map win.
SingularityFURIA| Singularity |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Victor 'food' Wong |
57 - 55 | +2 | 81.9 | 75.7% | 1.11 |
| Anthony 'vanity' Malaspina |
48 - 47 | +1 | 71.4 | 67.6% | 1.03 |
| Jordan 'Zellsis' Montemurro |
47 - 55 | -8 | 77.8 | 70.3% | 1.01 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
44 - 52 | -8 | 62.2 | 59.5% | 0.84 |
| Ryan 'ryann' Welsh |
34 - 56 | -22 | 53.8 | 60.8% | 0.71 |
| FURIA |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato |
61 - 42 | +19 | 86.0 | 77.0% | 1.26 |
| Yuri 'yuurih' Santos |
55 - 52 | +3 | 93.3 | 77.0% | 1.23 |
| Andrei 'arT' Piovezan |
51 - 42 | +9 | 71.6 | 73.0% | 1.15 |
| Vinicius 'VINI' Figueiredo |
54 - 45 | +9 | 69.7 | 74.3% | 1.13 |
| Rinaldo 'ableJ' Moda Junior |
43 - 49 | -6 | 68.0 | 64.9% | 0.94 |
Drip or Drown had an easier time of things in the second semifinal matchup, securing themselves a spot in the grand finals with a 2-0 win over Vireo.pro (16-12 Mirage, 16-8 Dust2).
Vireo.pro began Mirage with a 3-0 lead, but lost it just as quickly with Drip or Drown grabbing six rounds straight on their CT side. Vireo.pro fought back for the lead by winning four rounds of their own, but ultimately trailed by a single round at the half as Drip or Drown pulled ahead 8-7.
Matthew "WARDELL" Yu helped Drip or Drown extend their lead in the second half, working their way up to an 11-7 scoreline. Another four rounds went Vireo.pro's way before Drip or Drown regained control, allowing Vireo.pro just one additional round before they closed out the map 16-12.
Vireo.pro opened up Dust2 with a win in the pistol round, but were unable to secure the ensuing round as they were quickly reset. From there, the map was all Drip or Drown's, with Michael "dapr" Gulino and WARDELL combining to allow Vireo.pro just one more round in the half for a dominant 13-2 T side half.
Drip or Drown put themselves in touching distance of a series victory with a win in the second pistol round, but Vireo.pro managed to keep them at bay by resetting them and winning six rounds in a row. Once their economy stabilized, Drip or Drown put themselves back on the board, closing out the series 16-8 to advance to the grand finals against FURIA.
Vireo.proDrip or Drown| Vireo.pro |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ricky 'floppy' Kemery |
36 - 39 | -3 | 76.5 | 71.2% | 1.02 |
| Brenden 'stellar' McGrath |
37 - 38 | -1 | 81.6 | 63.5% | 1.01 |
| Robert 'robby' Brown |
33 - 39 | -6 | 72.8 | 63.5% | 0.92 |
| Josh 'PwnAlone' Pigue |
23 - 35 | -12 | 49.9 | 65.4% | 0.73 |
| Ben 'ben1337' Smith |
22 - 36 | -14 | 52.9 | 57.7% | 0.69 |
| Drip or Drown |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michael 'dapr' Gulino |
42 - 29 | +13 | 85.1 | 88.5% | 1.38 |
 Matthew 'WARDELL' Yu |
40 - 27 | +13 | 76.2 | 78.8% | 1.33 |
| Will 'dazzLe' Loafman |
40 - 36 | +4 | 87.8 | 73.1% | 1.24 |
| Phong 'bee' Nguyen |
34 - 30 | +4 | 69.9 | 71.2% | 1.12 |
| Jason 'neptune' Tran |
30 - 29 | +1 | 62.9 | 71.2% | 1.01 |
FURIA and Drip or Drown will clash in the grand finals, with the match already underway on the N3rdStreetGamers Twitch channel. The winner will take home $18,000, with the runner-up receiving half of that at $9,000.
