Big Frames, heX, LiViD pick up dominant wins in ESEA Advanced playoffs
The ESEA Advanced Season 31 playoffs began last night, with seven of eight round-of-sixteen matches being played out. Here is a recap of the action which saw numerous upsets rock MDL hopeful teams.
The first match of the night to conclude saw number one seed Big Frames face off against Strings' Llama Pack on Inferno and Nuke. Big Frames started Inferno off with a strong 9-6 CT-side before Strings' Llama Pack began to close the gap on their CT-side. Big Frames would narrowly take the map 16-14 thus avoiding overtime against the Blake "Strings" Stringer-led team. After a close match on Inferno, Nuke proved to be less so as Big Frames claimed a dominant 11-4 T-side. Following this, they quickly closed out the map 16-5. During the series, Ryan "Church" Church led the server with a 1.45 rating.
Strings' Llama PackBig Frames| Strings' Llama Pack |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Tyler 'Char' Wallace |
33 - 41 | -8 | 80.5 | 66.7% | 0.92 |
| Brian 'BlueSky' Wortman |
36 - 37 | -1 | 75.6 | 52.9% | 0.89 |
 Ethan 'SlaySmile' Mcfarlane |
27 - 41 | -14 | 67.7 | 62.7% | 0.72 |
| Blake 'Strings' Stringer |
31 - 44 | -13 | 64.5 | 54.9% | 0.71 |
| Caleb 'Chilled_Dan' Greek |
17 - 35 | -18 | 41.8 | 56.9% | 0.56 |
| Big Frames |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryan 'Church' Church |
41 - 27 | +14 | 85.8 | 88.2% | 1.45 |
| Jimmy 'Nurfed' McFadden |
42 - 32 | +10 | 95.1 | 80.4% | 1.39 |
| Liam 'Welshy' Newhouse |
37 - 29 | +8 | 83.3 | 78.4% | 1.34 |
| Jacob 'L0NER' Webster |
35 - 26 | +9 | 77.2 | 80.4% | 1.27 |
| Andy 'devastation' Parr |
43 - 30 | +13 | 77.7 | 74.5% | 1.19 |
The next series to conclude saw Addison "zecK" Gorzeck's heX claim a relatively convincing 2-0 victory over Lowkey. After a 12-3 lead T-side lead on Mirage, heX closed out the first map in the series with a 16-6 scoreline. On Nuke, Lowkey managed to take a 9-6 lead on their T-side though their lead was short-lived as heX rallied to put up a 10-4 T-Side to take the map 16-13.
LowkeyheX| Lowkey |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Damian 'EMIYA' Boulware |
41 - 34 | +7 | 94.2 | 74.5% | 1.23 |
| Lucas 'Fiziq' Blow |
35 - 33 | +2 | 80.5 | 66.7% | 1.07 |
| Alex 'vek' Voynov |
25 - 39 | -14 | 68.6 | 66.7% | 0.88 |
| Paytyn 'junior' Johnson |
25 - 37 | -12 | 45.3 | 62.7% | 0.71 |
| Alex 'Obs1dian' Conrad |
28 - 44 | -16 | 64.0 | 60.8% | 0.70 |
| heX |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sterling 'sterling' Allard |
48 - 27 | +21 | 103.1 | 84.3% | 1.54 |
| Matthew 'nero' Seymour |
38 - 25 | +13 | 75.4 | 80.4% | 1.31 |
| Nolan 'bite' Hunstad |
39 - 32 | +7 | 75.9 | 72.5% | 1.21 |
| Brady 'thief' Dever |
41 - 39 | +2 | 81.9 | 80.4% | 1.18 |
| Addison 'zecK' Gorzeck |
21 - 32 | -11 | 53.1 | 68.6% | 0.82 |
The third series of the night saw Crystal Vision start off by claiming an upset 16-13 victory on Overpass over Canadian squad LiViD. However, once the action switched over to LiViD's map pick of Nuke the team battered Crystal Vision with a nearly perfect 16-3 map win. Following this, they continued to rout Crystal Vision as they advanced into the quarterfinals with a 16-4 win on Inferno. During the one-sided series semi-recent addition Abdo "c4lypso" Agha put up 110.0 ADR alongside a 1.51 rating.
LiViDCrystal Vision| LiViD |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abdo 'c4Lypso' Agha |
65 - 45 | +20 | 110.0 | 83.8% | 1.51 |
| Danny 'huynh' Huynh |
58 - 31 | +27 | 86.0 | 80.9% | 1.46 |
| Mathieu 'INCRED' Bergeron |
48 - 33 | +15 | 70.7 | 82.4% | 1.22 |
| Cedric 'Melio' Perrault |
47 - 36 | +11 | 75.3 | 77.9% | 1.22 |
| Michael 'MkaeL' De Luca |
41 - 45 | -4 | 66.5 | 69.1% | 0.96 |
| Crystal Vision |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ken 'krotomo' Otomo |
48 - 57 | -9 | 79.6 | 66.2% | 0.94 |
| Alec 'dragooon' Droegemeier |
45 - 55 | -10 | 70.7 | 69.1% | 0.93 |
| Patrick 'Sachburger' Sachsalber |
37 - 49 | -12 | 74.6 | 69.1% | 0.93 |
| Chris 'Duck' Dutoit |
31 - 51 | -20 | 55.4 | 60.3% | 0.70 |
| Cody 'Domorin' Lutzel |
29 - 49 | -20 | 49.3 | 57.4% | 0.65 |
The next matchup ended up being one of the largest upsets of the night as Kyle "OCEAN" O'Brien's absolute mad lads pulled a 2-1 win off against Final Feature, who entered the playoffs seeded fourth. On Nuke, absolute mad lads didn't put up much opposition as Final Feature bested them 16-7. Following this absolute mad lads managed to reset, starting Overpass with a 10-5 lead, and capitalized on their round lead to force a third map after claiming Overpass 16-9.
With their tournament life on the line, absolute mad lads and Final Feature performed well on the opening half of Mirage though absolute mad lads ended their CT-side up three rounds. OCEAN's men won their T-side pistol to open the second half and converted the momentum into a 16-10 win securing the upset. Former ex-Atmosphere player Brandon "BOOBIE" Roberts was absolute mad lads’ best player as he found 64 kills against Final Feature during the series.
absolute mad ladsFinal Feature| absolute mad lads |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brandon 'bew' Roberts |
64 - 41 | +23 | 93.9 | 74.3% | 1.41 |
| Zander 'FIEND' Bates |
51 - 39 | +12 | 69.9 | 74.3% | 1.18 |
| Derek 'desi' Branchen |
58 - 47 | +11 | 78.9 | 71.6% | 1.16 |
| Nolan 'Temperature' Pepper |
51 - 49 | +2 | 83.5 | 75.7% | 1.11 |
| Kyle 'OCEAN' O'Brien |
26 - 46 | -20 | 42.9 | 55.4% | 0.62 |
| Final Feature |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Malick 'dangle' Abid |
49 - 44 | +5 | 72.9 | 68.9% | 1.10 |
| Jeremy 'Mundle' King |
45 - 53 | -8 | 74.3 | 64.9% | 0.98 |
| Shawn 'Magowi' O'Malley |
44 - 50 | -6 | 64.5 | 63.5% | 0.95 |
| Jordon 'jitter' Ruggiero |
39 - 53 | -14 | 68.0 | 64.9% | 0.91 |
| Austin 'RenZ' Dickman |
45 - 51 | -6 | 59.1 | 60.8% | 0.83 |
Dogs of War vs. On Lance started off with a player change as after Dogs of War went up 2-0 on Overpass, BrianD was replaced by Danny "cxzi" Strzelczyk after the player experienced connection issues. This sudden change did little to slow Dogs of War down though as the squad tore through OnLance to pick up a 16-4 win on Overpass. Following their loss on Overpass, the moribund On Lance squad quickly bounced back as they rallied to narrowly take a 16-12 win on Mirage.
However, On Lance's last outing as a squad did not end in victory as Dogs of War returned the favor with the recently signed squad picking up a 16-12 won on Nuke after a close first half.
Dogs of WarOn Lance| Dogs of War |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bryce 'PureR' Lovell |
71 - 54 | +17 | 104.3 | 75.0% | 1.41 |
| Nathan 'rabbit' Beale |
71 - 42 | +29 | 88.8 | 76.3% | 1.35 |
| Danny 'cxzi' Strzelczyk |
60 - 52 | +8 | 94.7 | 71.1% | 1.26 |
| Sean 'Inseaniac' Morrison |
53 - 48 | +5 | 73.4 | 72.4% | 1.12 |
| 'BrianD' |
0 - 3 | -3 | 5.9 | 100.0% | 1.05 |
| Sean 'Zevro' Hartnett |
42 - 46 | -4 | 57.3 | 77.6% | 0.92 |
| On Lance |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michael 'miLLe' St-Pierre |
58 - 55 | +3 | 79.3 | 69.7% | 1.12 |
| Yannick 'KOLER' Blanchette |
49 - 62 | -13 | 80.8 | 71.1% | 1.05 |
| David 'J0LZ' Jolin |
52 - 64 | -12 | 70.2 | 72.4% | 0.92 |
| Gabriel 'TENSKEE' Rodrigue |
42 - 60 | -18 | 69.7 | 61.8% | 0.84 |
| Aaron 'Aaron' Thao |
43 - 56 | -13 | 58.9 | 63.2% | 0.77 |
The series between former MDL organizations Front and iNTACT went the distance although each of the three maps were relatively one-sided. iNTACT started off by claiming a quick 16-8 win on Dust2 following a 13-2 lead on their T-side. Following this, Overpass ended in a far quicker fashion as after an 11-4 lead on their CT-side, Front pulled off a perfect CT-side to claim the map 16-4. Finally, on Nuke Front picked up another one-sided series as they took Nuke 16-8 after winning their T-side 11-4. During the series Ethan "ReckMONSTER" Serrano was Front's strongest performer with the player claiming a 1.45 rating.
FrontiNTACT| Front |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethan 'reck' Serrano |
59 - 47 | +12 | 97.4 | 80.9% | 1.45 |
| Aleksandar 'ALEKSANDAR' Hinojosa |
67 - 41 | +26 | 90.5 | 72.1% | 1.41 |
| Stephen 'SGM' Mechan |
47 - 43 | +4 | 76.8 | 72.1% | 1.09 |
| Thomas 'ExToSee' Johnson |
45 - 44 | +1 | 70.8 | 73.5% | 1.04 |
| Calvin 'becker' Becker |
32 - 44 | -12 | 56.5 | 67.6% | 0.83 |
| iNTACT |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carson 'nosraC' O'Reilly |
43 - 48 | -5 | 81.2 | 73.5% | 1.05 |
| Erik 'penny' Penny |
48 - 47 | +1 | 77.8 | 66.2% | 1.04 |
| Nassir 'rugrat' Francique |
46 - 49 | -3 | 73.6 | 67.6% | 1.03 |
| Adrian 'recky' Golec |
42 - 57 | -15 | 69.5 | 60.3% | 0.82 |
| Rafael 'clone' Singer |
40 - 50 | -10 | 58.0 | 64.7% | 0.80 |
The last matchup of the night resulted in the largest upset of the playoffs thus far as Good Game PR pulled off a 2-1 win against third seed Polar Ace. The underdog team started the series off in the lead as they narrowly managed to take Train 16-14 owing to strong CT-side performances from Amine "dopamine" Hamzic and Jack "micro" Ryan. After the close game on Train, Polar Ace looked back in control as after the team lost the opening pistol, thy managed to retake the lead for the entirety of the map, eventually winning it 16-8.
Moving onto the final map of the night, on Vertigo the two teams were neck and neck at the end of Good Game PR's CT-side however once they switched onto their T-side they overran Polar Ace's defenses to take eight out of the next nine rounds to secure the upset with a 16-8 win.
Polar AceGGPR| Polar Ace |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michael 'Dutchbag' Lane |
63 - 52 | +11 | 90.7 | 76.9% | 1.28 |
| Tim 'Hashy' Fisher |
60 - 58 | +2 | 84.8 | 67.9% | 1.11 |
| David 'Delta9' Shafer |
59 - 55 | +4 | 79.0 | 71.8% | 1.08 |
| Derek 'Hendy' Hendrixson |
51 - 59 | -8 | 72.4 | 62.8% | 0.90 |
| Jack 'JackZ' Zaruba |
42 - 57 | -15 | 59.4 | 67.9% | 0.88 |
| GGPR |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jack 'micro' Ryan |
65 - 55 | +10 | 91.8 | 65.4% | 1.21 |
| Amine 'dopamine' Hamzic |
57 - 52 | +5 | 80.5 | 74.4% | 1.14 |
| Chase 'lowrider' Releford |
54 - 52 | +2 | 70.9 | 66.7% | 1.01 |
| Jake 'eXotic' Vaupell |
50 - 60 | -10 | 70.6 | 71.8% | 0.99 |
| Michael 'niche' Marvin |
53 - 58 | -5 | 70.7 | 69.2% | 0.99 |
The final match the opening playoff round not yet played is the game between ETHEREAL and Just Swing, which was postponed until tonight at 8:00 PM EDT. The winner of this game will play absolute mad lads in the quarterfinals.
The next matches in the ESEA Advanced Season 31 playoffs, with times in EDT, are as follows:
| Wednesday, July 10th | |
| 8:00 PM | ETHEREAL -vs- Just Swing |
| Thursday, July 11th | |
| 9:30 PM | LiViD -vs- Front |
| 9:30 PM | Big Frames -vs- Dogs of War |
| 9:30 PM | heX -vs- Good Game PR |
| 9:30 PM | absolute mad lads -vs- TBD |
