ECS Season 7 Week 4 - Brazilians, Liquid, and eUnited through to semifinals
Day one of the fourth week of ECS Season 7 has come to an end, leaving four teams to compete for the $25,000 prize pool.
The majority of series took three maps to crown the champion, with the only 2-0 coming predictably from Liquid, who defeated Spacestation with relative ease. A 6-0 lead at the start of Overpass gave way to an 8-7 half in favor of Spacestation, but control was firmly in the hands of Liquid following the side swap as Keith "NAF" Markovic helped to power his side to a 16-11 finish. Spacestation's pick of Vertigo saw Liquid fare even better, with Nick "nitr0" Cannella leading his troops to a 10-5 T-side half before closing out the map 16-8.
LiquidSpacestation| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
45 - 32 | +13 | 84.5 | 76.5% | 1.38 |
| Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
47 - 33 | +14 | 90.4 | 74.5% | 1.30 |
 Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip |
37 - 28 | +9 | 84.5 | 76.5% | 1.27 |
| Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
39 - 33 | +6 | 85.4 | 74.5% | 1.26 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
40 - 33 | +7 | 85.0 | 76.5% | 1.25 |
| Spacestation |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michael 'Grim' Wince |
40 - 43 | -3 | 82.5 | 60.8% | 1.01 |
| Ryan 'Snakes' Amann |
30 - 41 | -11 | 73.6 | 56.9% | 0.87 |
| David 'DAVEY' Stafford |
30 - 38 | -8 | 65.4 | 54.9% | 0.84 |
| Anthony 'gMd' Guimond |
30 - 45 | -15 | 69.7 | 68.6% | 0.83 |
| Chad 'Oderus' Miller |
29 - 42 | -13 | 61.1 | 62.7% | 0.75 |
One-sided halves was the name of the game in the clash between Singularity and MIBR. The series began on Singularity's pick of Nuke, with Ricky "floppy" Kemery's side dominating MIBR in the opening portions of the map to take a 9-1 lead on the defense. MIBR managed to crack through Singularity's site holds towards the end of the half, with Fernando "fer" Alvarenga picking up an ace along the way to bring the scoreline to 11-4.
Once MIBR were on the CT-side, it was a whole different ballgame, with the Brazilians leaving little room for Singularity to extend their lead. An eleven-round streak allowed for MIBR to snatch match point from Singularity, with the Americans managing only a single offensive round before MIBR closed out the map with a 16-12 victory.
MIBR maintained momentum as they opened up their own pick of Mirage with a string of six rounds, with Singularity battling back towards the latter portion of the half to trail 5-10 at the side swap. Despite heroic efforts on the AWP by Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo, MIBR were unable to string together any CT rounds and quickly found themselves tied up with Singularity at 13-13. Cameron "hydrex" Kern pulled his team over the line, narrowly edging out the win 16-14 with 28 frags to his name to push the series to a deciding map.
The third map of the series, Overpass, bore little fruit for Singularity. FalleN's good form from Mirage continued into the deciding map, allowing for MIBR to crush Singularity's defenses for a 14-1 lead. Singularity sustained for four additional rounds at the start of the second half, but MIBR were quick to ensure their victory as the took two final rounds to close out the series 16-5.
SingularityMIBR| Singularity |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cameron 'cam' Kern |
64 - 62 | +2 | 88.6 | 74.7% | 1.15 |
| Ricky 'floppy' Kemery |
60 - 57 | +3 | 77.7 | 65.8% | 1.06 |
| Ryan 'ryann' Welsh |
45 - 63 | -18 | 67.0 | 65.8% | 0.84 |
| Alan 'Shakezullah' Hardeman |
40 - 54 | -14 | 60.9 | 60.8% | 0.77 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
40 - 57 | -17 | 58.8 | 62.0% | 0.76 |
| MIBR |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo |
70 - 50 | +20 | 89.4 | 79.7% | 1.40 |
| Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga |
64 - 50 | +14 | 82.8 | 67.1% | 1.23 |
| João 'felps' Vasconcellos |
52 - 49 | +3 | 71.2 | 74.7% | 1.08 |
| Marcelo 'coldzera' David |
58 - 54 | +4 | 75.2 | 72.2% | 1.03 |
| Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo |
49 - 48 | +1 | 71.3 | 69.6% | 1.02 |
NRG, who qualified for the ECS Season 7 Finals in week 2, returned this week for a shot at some extra prize money, and a chance to take on some top teams in official matches. eUnited were the first team to take them on, with NRG surprising by opening up the series with a Vertigo pick.
That pick appeared to pay off as Tsvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov helped to power NRG to a 10-5 lead on the T-side, with eUnited initially managing only two rounds to their name before grabbing a final trio at the end of the half. Once the sides swapped over however, NRG looked completely out of sorts, mustering only two rounds on the CT-side as Anthony "vanity" Malaspina took control for eUnited to steal away NRG's map 16-12.
eUnited took the first three rounds of their own pick, Nuke, but were unable to make much more of an impact as CeRq's good form continued, granting NRG an 11-4 scoreline at the end of the first half. That lead was quickly extended to 13-4 as the second pistol also went NRG's way, but a comeback effort by eUnited granted NRG just one additional round as Edgar "MarKE" Maldonado and Victor "food" Wong helped their side narrow the gap to 14-13. A combined effort from Ethan "Ethan" Arnold and CeRq finally allowed for NRG to close out the map with two final rounds, forcing the series to Overpass.
The final map remained firmly in the control of eUnited, with Kaleb "moose" Jayne helping his team take a 9-1 lead on the CT-side to start off the map. Although NRG mustered four rounds at the end of the half, eUnited won six straight following the side swap to quickly shut down any hopes of a comeback for NRG, closing out the map 16-5.
NRGeUnited| NRG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov |
72 - 50 | +22 | 84.8 | 71.8% | 1.29 |
| Ethan 'Ethan' Arnold |
47 - 58 | -11 | 79.0 | 67.9% | 0.99 |
| Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte |
51 - 60 | -9 | 69.8 | 61.5% | 0.91 |
| Damian 'daps' Steele |
42 - 56 | -14 | 63.8 | 60.3% | 0.82 |
| Tarik 'tarik' Celik |
35 - 61 | -26 | 50.6 | 57.7% | 0.63 |
| eUnited |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kaleb 'moose' Jayne |
64 - 51 | +13 | 83.1 | 73.1% | 1.25 |
| Anthony 'vanity' Malaspina |
59 - 49 | +10 | 82.0 | 73.1% | 1.21 |
 Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado |
61 - 50 | +11 | 80.3 | 79.5% | 1.20 |
| Victor 'food' Wong |
54 - 46 | +8 | 73.6 | 69.2% | 1.09 |
| Austin 'Cooper' Abadir |
47 - 51 | -4 | 70.4 | 73.1% | 0.99 |
The matchup between Cloud9 and Luminosity was the last to conclude, with the two teams trading blows before Luminosity narrowly prevailed on Dust2.
A 9-6 lead on the CT-side of Train for Luminosity was briefly lost as Cloud9 opened up the second half by winning five of the first six rounds, but the Brazilians were able to reply in kind as they gave up just one additional round on the road to a 16-12 finish. A far more dominant opening half on Inferno allowed for Cloud9 to initially pull ahead 11-4, with the American-European roster closing out the map in quick fashion 16-7.
Dust2 resulted in a much closer back-and-forth between the two sides, with Cloud9 taking the first three rounds before Luminosity got on the board with a six-round streak of their own. Five additional rounds for Cloud9 gave them a narrow 8-7 lead at the side swap, with Luminosity immediately stealing it away with a trio of rounds in the second half.
Cloud9 won three of their own to regain the lead, but Luminosity immediately contested with two of their own to pull it back. Cloud9 won two additional rounds to tie up the match at 13-13, but back-to-back triple kill rounds by Gabriel "NEKIZ" Schenato granted Luminosity match point, with the Brazilians claiming the ensuing round for a 16-13 victory.
Cloud9Luminosity| Cloud9 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 René 'cajunb' Borg |
57 - 50 | +7 | 71.6 | 67.5% | 1.09 |
| Timothy 'autimatic' Ta |
54 - 52 | +2 | 73.0 | 71.2% | 1.08 |
| Daniel 'vice' Kim |
56 - 54 | +2 | 69.8 | 62.5% | 1.04 |
| William 'RUSH' Wierzba |
55 - 57 | -2 | 81.2 | 72.5% | 1.03 |
 Maikil 'Golden' Selim |
38 - 59 | -21 | 61.8 | 57.5% | 0.76 |
| Luminosity |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lucas 'LUCAS1' Teles |
60 - 52 | +8 | 87.7 | 77.5% | 1.21 |
| Ricardo 'boltz' Prass |
61 - 51 | +10 | 83.5 | 71.2% | 1.14 |
| Gabriel 'NEKIZ' Schenato |
59 - 57 | +2 | 82.2 | 68.8% | 1.05 |
| Henrique 'HEN1' Teles |
51 - 47 | +4 | 63.8 | 66.2% | 1.04 |
| Lucas 'steel' Lopes |
41 - 53 | -12 | 64.9 | 66.2% | 0.89 |
Week 4 and Week 5 of ECS Season 7 will not automatically award the winning team a spot at the LAN finals. Instead, the team with the most prize money accumulated by the end of the season will receive the final slot, with INTZ and Luminosity currently leading the way.
The two semifinal matchups for Week 4, with times in EDT, are as follows:
| Week 4 Semifinals, May 14th & 15th (EDT) | |
|---|---|
| MIBR -vs- eUnited |
5:00 PM |
| Luminosity -vs- Liquid |
5:00 PM |
The first semifinals match will take place tomorrow, with MIBR facing off against eUnited at 5 PM EDT.
