Singularity advance to finals in EPL Season 9 Pre-Relegation
As day one of Season 9's Pre-Relegation tournament draws to a close, three teams are left in the fight to claim the first of two ESL Pro League Season 10 spots up for grabs this week.
Beginning with Singularity and Lazarus, the challengers from MDL managed to secure a 2-1 win over the first seed team.
Starting off on Nuke, Singularity came out of the gate swinging, winning their T-side 11-4. In the second half, Lazarus looked like they were going to turn things around after claiming the pistol and following round, however, Singularity shut them out and ended the first map 16-6.
Continuing onto Inferno, although Singularity claimed their third pistol round of the night, strong performances from Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker and Braxton "swag" Pierce saw Lazarus end the half up 9-6. Following this, Singularity would find double digits after winning another pistol round, however they were unable to retake the lead, with Lazarus securing Inferno 16-11.
On Mirage, Lazarus won the opening pistol round, and the following two rounds though they were unable to end the half with a significant lead as Singularity managed to end the half down by a single round. Once the two squads switched sides, Lazarus appeared to run out of steam as they only found three more rounds before Singularity claimed Mirage with a 16-11 scoreline.
LazarusSingularity| Lazarus |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jaccob 'yay' Whiteaker |
56 - 53 | +3 | 73.2 | 69.7% | 1.11 |
| Braxton 'swag' Pierce |
59 - 52 | +7 | 76.6 | 68.4% | 1.03 |
 Yassine 'Subroza' Taoufik |
48 - 51 | -3 | 72.6 | 68.4% | 0.96 |
| Gage 'Infinite' Green |
47 - 53 | -6 | 72.8 | 67.1% | 0.94 |
| Jordan 'Zellsis' Montemurro |
34 - 59 | -25 | 61.2 | 56.6% | 0.72 |
| Singularity |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ricky 'floppy' Kemery |
64 - 50 | +14 | 102.1 | 77.6% | 1.38 |
| Ryan 'ryann' Welsh |
59 - 49 | +10 | 81.5 | 71.1% | 1.28 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
58 - 47 | +11 | 77.6 | 73.7% | 1.18 |
| Cameron 'cam' Kern |
46 - 50 | -4 | 62.4 | 71.1% | 0.97 |
| Alan 'Shakezullah' Hardeman |
41 - 48 | -7 | 56.6 | 72.4% | 0.90 |
On the other side of the bracket, INTZ claimed a hard fought 2-0 victory over Envy on Dust2 and Nuke.
On Dust2, although INTZ managed to pick up their opening CT-side pistol, Envy looked in control throughout the half as they claimed the next five rounds in a row, going on to secure a 9-6 lead. Moving onto their CT-side, the cracks within Envy began to show as after winning the opening pistol and the flowing eco, once INTZ's economy stabilized they won the next seven rounds in a row to secure a 13-11 lead. Following this, Envy would win more round before INTZ closed out Dust2 16-12.
Moving onto Nuke, Envy seemingly shook off their loss on Dust2 as they played a nearly perfect T-side to end the half up 14-1. With INTZ's back up against the wall, they managed to shock Envy as they decimated Envy's defenses to secure overtime after claiming a 14-1 T-half of their own. Unfortunately for Envy their problems continued into overtime as INTZ's incredible reversal continued, with the Brazilian side securing Nuke 19-16.
EnvyINTZ| Envy |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek |
45 - 41 | +4 | 74.7 | 66.7% | 1.17 |
| Jacob 'FugLy' Medina |
49 - 39 | +10 | 78.2 | 71.4% | 1.15 |
| Bradley 'ANDROID' Fodor |
44 - 43 | +1 | 88.2 | 74.6% | 1.13 |
| Sam 's0m' Oh |
32 - 46 | -14 | 59.3 | 68.3% | 0.84 |
| Noah 'Nifty' Francis |
33 - 41 | -8 | 55.2 | 54.0% | 0.78 |
| INTZ |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Vito 'kNgV-' Giuseppe |
63 - 41 | +22 | 99.2 | 74.6% | 1.44 |
| Marcelo 'chelo' Cespedes |
49 - 39 | +10 | 81.1 | 66.7% | 1.17 |
| Lucas 'destiny' Bullo |
37 - 42 | -5 | 69.2 | 69.8% | 1.03 |
| Gustavo 'yel' Knittel |
33 - 39 | -6 | 65.0 | 76.2% | 0.97 |
| Alexandre 'xand' Zizi |
27 - 42 | -15 | 52.2 | 57.1% | 0.78 |
Heading to the upper bracket, the next match of the day saw Singularity face off against INTZ.
After INTZ's comeback on Nuke, the Brazilians unsurprisingly let the map through in the veto. They likely quickly regretted that decision as Singularity rolled through INTZ to claim a 12-3 T-side. After halftime, Singularity won the pistol round and the following two rounds to secure Nuke with a 16-3 scoreline.
After a one-sided loss on Nuke, INTZ fared a bit better on Train as they put up a serviceable T-side which saw them end the half up 8-7. However, once the two squads changed sides following INTZ's pistol round victory, Singularity looked in control, winning eight out the next eleven rounds to find map point. Following this INTZ put one more round on the board before Singularity won Train 16-13.
With this, INTZ drops to the lower bracket, while Singularity moves forward into the Pre-Relegation grand finals.
INTZSingularity| INTZ |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marcelo 'chelo' Cespedes |
32 - 29 | +3 | 72.8 | 66.7% | 1.07 |
| Alexandre 'xand' Zizi |
34 - 34 | +0 | 80.7 | 66.7% | 1.00 |
| Gustavo 'yel' Knittel |
28 - 35 | -7 | 72.3 | 58.3% | 0.89 |
| Vito 'kNgV-' Giuseppe |
27 - 34 | -7 | 52.1 | 60.4% | 0.87 |
| Lucas 'destiny' Bullo |
19 - 35 | -16 | 51.4 | 56.2% | 0.70 |
| Singularity |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryan 'ryann' Welsh |
43 - 31 | +12 | 98.5 | 77.1% | 1.44 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
39 - 24 | +15 | 77.9 | 77.1% | 1.35 |
| Cameron 'cam' Kern |
35 - 33 | +2 | 79.4 | 68.8% | 1.10 |
| Ricky 'floppy' Kemery |
28 - 23 | +5 | 60.3 | 70.8% | 1.06 |
| Alan 'Shakezullah' Hardeman |
22 - 29 | -7 | 55.6 | 70.8% | 0.84 |
The first match up of the lower bracket saw Lazarus and Envy fight for their life in the Pre-Relegation tournament. The first map saw Lazarus dominate Envy on Inferno, shutting down Envy's T-side to take the first half 12-3. In the second half, Lazarus quickly crept up to map point, before securing Inferno 16-7.
Moving onto Lazarus' map pick of Dust2, Envy managed to put up a slightly better showing, capitalizing on winning the first four rounds on their T-side to win the half, albeit up by a single round. However, once Lazarus transitioned onto their T-side, things started to go South for Envy as Lazarus outgunned and outpaced Envy to claim Dust2 and by extension the series with a 16-12 finish. As a result, Envy have been eliminated from Pre-Relegation although they will still have a lifeline in the main Relegation bracket.
EnvyLazarus| Envy |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek |
40 - 31 | +9 | 84.8 | 74.5% | 1.30 |
| Jacob 'FugLy' Medina |
29 - 35 | -6 | 75.2 | 72.5% | 0.97 |
| Sam 's0m' Oh |
35 - 37 | -2 | 63.7 | 76.5% | 0.97 |
| Bradley 'ANDROID' Fodor |
33 - 38 | -5 | 59.6 | 70.6% | 0.85 |
| Noah 'Nifty' Francis |
23 - 41 | -18 | 61.4 | 60.8% | 0.79 |
| Lazarus |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gage 'Infinite' Green |
48 - 29 | +19 | 91.6 | 84.3% | 1.41 |
| Braxton 'swag' Pierce |
40 - 30 | +10 | 81.9 | 72.5% | 1.23 |
| Jaccob 'yay' Whiteaker |
31 - 29 | +2 | 66.9 | 72.5% | 1.06 |
| Jordan 'Zellsis' Montemurro |
35 - 37 | -2 | 76.7 | 62.7% | 1.00 |
| Yassine 'Subroza' Taoufik |
28 - 35 | -7 | 71.7 | 70.6% | 0.98 |
With the first day done, tomorrow's matches will feature a best-of-three between Lazarus and INTZ, then a best-of-five between the winner and Singularity for a spot in ESL Pro League Season 10. Tomorrow's losers will be moved down to the Relegation tournament which is set to start on the 17th.
Match times for tomorrow are:
| Lazarus |
vs. | INTZ |
2:00 p.m. EDT |
| Singularity |
vs. | Lazarus/INTZ Winner | 5:30 p.m. EDT |
