Mythic earn first seat in ESEA Advanced Season 40 grand final
The action continued inside of the ESEA Advanced Season 40 playoffs last night with two more games being played out, one coming from the upper bracket and the other facing elimination implications in the lower bracket. Unjustified fought tooth and nail to survive another day as Limitless said goodbye to their hopes for direction qualification to ECL, and Mythic made quick work of Philadelphia Liberty to earn their place inside the grand finals.
The games kicked off in the lower bracket with Unjustified rocking Limitless on their map pick of Ancient. Limitless secured pistol on their T side, but it immediately fell apart as Unjustified would go on two separate six-round win streaks to secure a 12-3 half on their opponents’ map pick. With their foot on the neck of Limitless, Unjustified won the first four rounds in the second half to take out Limitless 16-3. Justin “jsfeltner” Feltner took over for his team on map one, going 27-8 with 130.5 ADR and a 2.13 rating. With jsfeltner and his team surging, Limitless needed to find a way to rally back with a win of their own on Unjustified’s map pick of Inferno to take it to a third.
Limitless did just that to kick off map two, going 6-1 to start their opposition's Inferno pick. Unjustified would not take it lying down, however, as they answered back with three rounds of their own to close the gap to 4-6. The two-round deficit was as close as they would get in the first half, as Limitless took three of the last five to secure the comfortable 9-6 lead heading into the second half. Unjustified won pistol and the round after to bring them within one round of their opponent's lead. With Limitless’ lead nearly gone, they hit the accelerator. They won seven of the final eight rounds to close map two out 16-9. With Limitless in the driver’s seat heading into Mirage, Unjustified’s chances of survival were waning.
The round distribution in map three was identical to that on Inferno, except reversed to favor Unjustified. Limitless enjoyed a brief 5-2 lead before Unjustified reclaimed momentum off of six straight rounds. With the half eventually closing out 9-6 in Unjustified’s favor, things were suddenly looking bleak for the Limitless crew. With both lineups looking for their talent to take over the game Kyle “Just2EZ” Tan answered the call with an 18-5 K/D, 147.5 ADR, and an unbelievable 2.56 rating on T-side to close the game out in favor of Unjustified 16-9. After securing the first two rounds to start the second half, Limitless could not withstand the pressure of Just2EZ and the rest of the Unjustified in crunch time. The 2-1 victory for Unjustified eliminates Limitless from the playoffs, bringing us to just three teams. Unjustified climb one step closer to the ultimate prize, with just one more win separating them from the grand final.
LimitlessUnjustified| Limitless |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Michael 'Millz' Millsaps |
53 - 52 | +1 | 77.7 | 73.9% | 1.12 |
| Bradley 'Slugy' Kohler |
50 - 52 | -2 | 78.6 | 66.7% | 1.08 |
| Dave 'seziwana' Schrage |
52 - 53 | -1 | 88.2 | 66.7% | 1.08 |
 Matthew 'mirth' Mudrinic |
39 - 55 | -16 | 57.6 | 65.2% | 0.76 |
| Devin 'AtomiK' Ferrell |
32 - 54 | -22 | 60.5 | 60.9% | 0.75 |
| Unjustified |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kyle 'Just2EZ' Tan |
60 - 49 | +11 | 94.5 | 78.3% | 1.33 |
| McKinley 'Cyrix' Hollison |
55 - 46 | +9 | 87.2 | 76.8% | 1.27 |
| Justin 'jsfeltner' Feltner |
55 - 45 | +10 | 87.4 | 72.5% | 1.21 |
| Andrew 'Sloopy' Church |
47 - 42 | +5 | 72.9 | 73.9% | 1.13 |
| Dennis 'Hitman' Brichko |
47 - 44 | +3 | 72.7 | 73.9% | 1.03 |
Shortly after these two teams started their battle, Mythic and Philadelphia Liberty began their match inside of the upper bracket final. Unlike the match prior, these two teams would only need two maps to settle. Things were back and forth to kick off the Liberty’s map pick of Vertigo, with the two teams splitting the first eight rounds. With the teams tied at 4-4, Mythic ramped up their defensive efforts, winning ten of the final eleven rounds to earn a comfortable 10-5 lead. Mythic would make quick work of Philadelphia in the second half, going 6-1 to take their opponents' map pick 16-6. With Mythic firmly in control, the stage was set for Inferno.
Mythic dominated Inferno from start to finish, starting their pick 7-0 before Philadelphia managed a response. They would manage two in a row before Mythic was back on track with six rounds in a row to end the half 13-2 in their favor. Philadelphia Liberty worked hard to fight back with three straight rounds to start the second half, but the match was too far gone. Mythic would find their footing in round 19 to win their fourteenth and the two that followed, taking their pick of Inferno 16-5, and the series 2-0. The win takes Mythic into the Grand Finals, where they will wait for the action to conclude tonight to find out who they will battle for the first-place prize and the invite to ECL Season 41. To decide their opponent, Philadelphia Liberty and Unjustified compete later tonight in do-or-die BO3 action. Coinciding with that match will be the fifth-place decider match between Kinship and UYU, with the winner earning one of the five available spots in ECL Season 40 Relegation.
MythicPhiladelphia Liberty| Mythic |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryan 'freakazoid' Abadir |
45 - 31 | +14 | 117.8 | 76.7% | 1.60 |
| Nicholas 'hate' Young |
37 - 21 | +16 | 83.2 | 76.7% | 1.40 |
| Eric 'ERIC' W. |
34 - 24 | +10 | 84.4 | 72.1% | 1.32 |
| Austin 'Cooper' Abadir |
27 - 26 | +1 | 73.6 | 79.1% | 1.12 |
| Erik 'fl0m' Flom |
27 - 24 | +3 | 68.5 | 81.4% | 1.05 |
| Philadelphia Liberty |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jeremy 'taiwi' Wang |
29 - 32 | -3 | 70.9 | 60.5% | 0.93 |
| Graham 'GRAHAM' Smith |
25 - 37 | -12 | 81.7 | 58.1% | 0.87 |
| Garret 'garret' Henry |
24 - 33 | -9 | 69.0 | 67.4% | 0.86 |
| Andrew 'Tender' Cote |
27 - 34 | -7 | 63.1 | 55.8% | 0.80 |
| Wayne 'castro' Einarsson |
18 - 36 | -18 | 56.1 | 65.1% | 0.70 |
The ESEA Advanced playoff games being played tonight are:
Philadelphia Liberty vs Unjustified at 09:30PM Kinship vs UYU at 09:30PM
