Counter Nature roll a natural 20 at Frag North Brunswick

The ESEA Advanced team Counter Nature have secured the first place at the Fragadelphia event in North Brunswick over the weekend. Their win comes off a flawless playoffs run where they 2-0'ed every opponent including the Adam "nbgee12" Zanzoul led mix-team LGG Eclipse in the grand final.

The format of the event followed a standard Fragadelphia format for a sixteen-team tournament. The teams were divided up into four groups of four where BO1 matches were played in a round-robin format. The top two of each group proceeded to the eight-team playoffs. The first round of the BO3 playoffs was played on Saturday night with the rest being played on Sunday. A third place match was also played alongside the grand final.

The event began on Saturday morning with the first two groups. In Group A, the Monkey Business and ex-UYU mix team Cookie Clowns came out on top without dropping either of their matches. Coming in second place were Broke Arm Bandits, who lost their match versus Cookie Clowns. The team known as The Barbershop found themselves in the third and final place of the group after losing both their matches. There was no fourth team in the group after one of the teams were a no-show.

On the other side in Group B, the two grand finalists found themselves in a decently stacked grouped, alongside Mr. Steal Your Win and Tricksters. LGG Eclipse were the team to win the grand final preview in a close 16-14 match on Mirage. The two grand finalists both won their remaining matches in group placing them in the quarterfinals. Mr. Steal Your Win were able to defeat Tricksters also in the opening round which placed them third in the group.

Kicking-off the afternoon were other two groups which both featured a tied match in their second rounds. In Group C, Revel easily dispatched of their competition and topped the group 3-0. In second place were Care Bears who bested Tropa do ViLAO but finished on a tie with Rutgers Delinquents, who themselves were bested by Tropa do ViLAO. With only a single tied match to their name, Rutgers Delinquents placed bottom of the group, followed by Tropa do ViLAO in third place. However, due to scheduling complications, second-place Care Bears withdrew from the playoffs and Tropa do ViLAO took their spot.

Group D saw a similar 3-0 by top-team Smile, however, the tied match scenario was slightly different. In second place for the group, ESmokeVapors bested everyone except Smile, leaving the third-place to he decided by the remaining two teams. Unfortunately, as both teams tied 15-15, they were ranked equally so their tiebreaking came down to overall round difference where wutang bangalang came out ahead of Kurkku by two rounds.

With all the groups concluded, the quarterfinals were set out and ready to be played. The first match was Cookie Clowns vs ESmoke Vapors which saw the more-experienced mix dismantle their opponent 16-7 and 16-9 on Mirage and Inferno, respectively. The second quarterfinal was between Advanced sides Counter Nature and Revel; unfortunately for Revel, they were only able to reach double-digits on Nuke where they lost 16-10 followed up by a 16-8 loss on Inferno.

The other half of the bracket started with LGG Eclipse vs Tropa do ViLAO. Despite receiving a second chance in the group stage, Tropa do ViLAO were unable to capitalize further and lost their match-up with a 16-7 scoreline on both Dust2 and Mirage. The final quarterfinal, which fully completed the 2-0 trend, saw Broke Arm Bandits duke it out against Smile. This was arguable the most one-sided match, seeing Smile demolish the Bandits 16-3 on Dust2 and a closer 16-10 on Vertigo.

Recommencing on Sunday morning, the next round in the playoffs to be played was the semifinals. Counter Nature continued their dominant resurgence, taking down Cookie Clowns in a 2-0 on Nuke and Inferno — both with 16-13 scorelines. The other semifinal also began with a 16-13 result for LGG Eclipse over Smile. Unfortunately for the streak, Smile were unable to squeeze out thirteen rounds on the second map, Overpass, only securing seven before being overpowered.

Fortunately for both Cookie Clowns and Smile, despite losing their matches, there was still the third-place match to be played for the $500 prize. Their match kicked-off on Ancient which saw the Clowns demonstrate a dominant CT-side, ending the half 13-2. With only a three-round buffer, Smile were unable to do much on their CT-side and only secured three rounds themselves before Cookie Clowns reached sixteen.

The second map, Inferno, this time started with Smile on the CT-side. Despite this, it was almost a repeat of the first map with the score being 3-10 at one point, ending 5-10 at half-time. Swapping sides, things didn't improve for Smile, only managing to garner two round on their T-side and going on to eventually lose the map 7-16. Claiming the series 2-0, Cookie Clowns finish the event in third-place with $500 and 1,000 FRAG points for their troubles.

The grand final between Counter Nature and LGG Eclipse started on CN's pick of Dust2 where their opponents opted to start on the CT-side. After what looked like a dominating 10-5 first half for LGG in the first half, CN were able to turn the tables on them. Squeezing out an extra CT round in the second half, the map ended 16-14 in favour of Counter Nature.

Moving to the second map of Inferno, Counter Nature had the choice of which side to start on as it was LGG's map pick. Choosing the CT-side, CN mirrored LGG's opening half on Dust2, also storing a strong 10-5 start. However, after the teams switched sides, it seemed that all of LGG's gas had ran out. Not winning a single further round, LGG Eclipse lost the second map 5-16 despite a 1.35 rating from Blake "Elk'" Swinson. Taking the series 2-0, Counter Nature claim the first place prize of $1,250 and 4,000 FRAG points.

The final standings of the Fragadelphia 17 North Brunswick LAN are:
1. Counter Nature (Truepain, CAJUN, dAvemayNe, Wo0o0o, swifty-) — $1,250 + 4,000 points
2. LGG Eclipse (nbgee12, aleph, nero, droid, Elk) — $750 + 2,000 points
3. Cookie Clowns (kmrn, tatm, Waddill, DJF, Drew) — $500 + 1,000 points
4. Smile (Go0dby3, clappl001, cnnr, DacS, dirtydan) — 1,000 points

5-8. ESmoke Vapors (Billyk, nyuu, Ocahhs, Fr3z, RY_Guy) — 500 points
5-8. Revel (Jachro, ChwE, NoVa, Reaper, SolGoat) — 500 points
5-8. Tropa do ViLAO (clx, kashz, vin3, TiaNastacia, hAimundo) — 500 points
5-8. Broke Arm Bandits (bored, adooskii, Fireboy, aimkey, 1justin) — 500 points

9-12. The Barbershop (Ar3s, Melan1n, aux_13, t0teras, Skethu) — 250 points
9-12. Mr. Steal Your Win (c0ntr01, CriisP, Jpp, fx-, GKaay) — 250 points
9-12. Care Bears (phiLm9yne, bioax, cLoudy, NE1, xenO) — 250 points
9-12. wutang bangalang (Ricky, fish, Swampy, Timtheguy, TYMONSTER) — 250 points

13-16. Tricksters (Tr1ck, kru, fatguy, ydaer, PandaK1ng) — 250 points
13-16. Rutgers Delinquents (GalifiSZN, nutcase, Tiski, ryyo, Waves) — 250 points
13-16. Kurkku (Cazoz, arty, Slingshothappy, DaRealEdi, RexiL) — 250 points

Full results for the whole event can be found here. The next Fragadelphia LAN stop will be the $10,000 event in Chicago on June 18th and 19th; those interested can still register here with regular price sign-ups closing in a couple hours.