ESEA Main S26 Playoffs - Round of 32
The first round of matches have been completed, and the ESEA Main play-offs are narrowed down to 16 teams. The first set game of the next round is set to kick off at 9:30pm EST tonight, so here's a brief recap on the notable first round games.
Etherian E-Sports vs nice cock (2-1)
A very close tie between the top and bottom seeds saw a close first map of Mirage head over to the team with the interesting name 16-14. Inferno was a more dominant finish from Etherian to even the tie out, taking the map 16-10. The two sides then repeated a close match over on Nuke, before Etherian took an overtime victory 19-16 to secure a second round tie against Glockoma.
Guerilla Tactics vs CodenameKidsNextDoor (2-0)
Guerilla Tactics had a slightly more straightforward match up against their opponents. They kicked off on Cobblestone and kept themselves ahead throughout the majority of the tie to take the map 16-12. Cache was a different story, where Guerilla had to come back from a major 11-4 deficit to secure their second round place with a 16-12 win.
h00liGaNz vs Team LiVE (2-1)
The fourth seed looked to be cruising to victory on the first map, with the h00liGaNz taking Cobblestone 16-7. The second map made everyone think again as LiVE forced themselves to a 25-22 overtime victory on Cache, before h00liGaNz dominated with a 16-2 victory on Infeno.
BlackwoodProductions vs Gosu (2-0)
An Inferno where the teams swapped halves being extremely dominant saw it taken to overtime, before being won by BlackwoodProductions 19-15 on a major comeback. They carried on their dominant form into Cobblestone, taking it in a dominant 16-4.
Team Hyper vs Gremblo Art Show (2-1)
A serious upset seemed to be up on the cards as the 27th seed Gremblo Art Show beat 6th seed Hyper 16-4 on Cache. Such thoughts were soon discarded as the exact opposite was done by Hyper on Cobblestone, taking a 16-4 win. Train carried on Hyper's dominant streak as they completed the tie 16-7.
eRa Eternity vs On The Run (2-0)
A small name change proved to be no bother for eRa Eternity, as they took the newly christened On The Run out fairly comfortably. With strong showings on both maps, with a 16-11 win on Cobblestone and a 16-9 win on Nuke, they're set strongly for the next round of games.
Velocity eSports vs Team Sol (0-2)
A fairly large upset occured, as 9th seed Velocity eSports were taken down by 24th seed Team Sol. The victory was performed very comfortably on Cobblestone, with a 16-7 win where the team were more or less always ahead. This was then followed by an extremely close Mirage where Team Sol made a comeback to narrowly book their place with a 16-14 win.
SetToDestroyX vs We are a Team (2-0)
The Canadian side booked their way to the second round with two pretty strong displays over their opponents. A 16-10 game of Nuke was followed up by a slightly closer 16-11 match of Train, after which SetToDestroyX set themselves up for a tie against h00liGaNz.
With those briefly recapped, the upcoming Round-of-16 match-ups are:
 Etherian |
vs Glockoma |
eRa Eternity |
vs Team Sol |
| BlackwoodProductions |
vs Enter Uprising |
h00liGaNz |
vs  SetToDestroyX |
| Guerilla Tactics |
vs TTaC |
Team Hyper |
vs Team RiVaL |
 VAULT |
vs HWML |
Savages |
vs VikingS |
The full list of results can be found on the ESEA Main standings page, as well as timings for upcoming fixtures.
