Envy win Season 9 Relegation; Singularity and INTZ to MDL
This evening, ESL Pro League Season 9 Relegation drew to a close. After Friday's Pre-Relegation tournament, INTZ, Envy, and Singularity were all left in Pro League limbo, while Lazarus secured their spot in Season 10.
Beginning yesterday, the remaining trio joined ATK to battle it out for the final spot. Envy had a solid run through the upper bracket, and INTZ were relegated to MDL leaving ATK and Singularity in the loser's bracket.
Kicking off today was the aforementioned best-of-three beginning on Inferno. On T-side, ATK got things going after winning the first pistol round of the series. They then managed to run the scoreboard up to 6-1 in their favor before Singularity regained control and put a stop to their run, taking the first half 9-6. ATK would have a harder time on the defense, only picking up three rounds off of a force buy after losing the pistol. Singularity later recovered, winning the first map 16-9.
Moving onto Train, Singularity kicked off the map with a dominant 11-4 T-side. With their backs against the wall and the threat of relegation looming, ATK rallied to pull off an 11-4 T-side of their own including a 1v2 clutch by Ian "motm" Hardy. With regulation tied up, the game went to overtime. After ATK took the lead 18-17, motm pulled off a 4k with the AUG to prevent another overtime.
With both team's map picks out of the way, Overpass was left to be the decider. After winning the first pistol, ATK's Johnny "JT" Theodosiou set the stage for a back and forth battle by pulling off an impressive 1v2 with no armor and an AK. The rest of the half saw both teams matching each other's blows, with the scoreboard tied up a total of three times. After securing the half at 8-5, ATK let the last two rounds slip to Singularity, ending the first half 8-7.
Singularity started off strong on their T-side, claiming the second pistol round of the map. However, ATK forced up and won the next round, taking the lead back in their favor. After 10 more hard-fought rounds, ATK dodged relegation for now by winning the game and in turn the series 16-11, leaving Singularity to fight through another season of MDL.
SingularityATK| Singularity |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
60 - 52 | +8 | 71.8 | 75.0% | 1.16 |
| Cameron 'cam' Kern |
64 - 61 | +3 | 76.9 | 73.9% | 1.12 |
| Ricky 'floppy' Kemery |
50 - 57 | -7 | 68.1 | 67.0% | 1.00 |
| Ryan 'ryann' Welsh |
62 - 65 | -3 | 72.6 | 67.0% | 0.97 |
| Alan 'Shakezullah' Hardeman |
46 - 56 | -10 | 62.5 | 68.2% | 0.87 |
| ATK |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ian 'motm' Hardy |
66 - 46 | +20 | 79.8 | 81.8% | 1.28 |
 Roberto 'blackpoisoN' Dall'Occo |
62 - 59 | +3 | 75.0 | 68.2% | 1.07 |
| Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou |
57 - 55 | +2 | 68.4 | 65.9% | 1.01 |
| Dominic 'Domsterr' Sampaio |
55 - 60 | -5 | 73.0 | 70.5% | 1.00 |
| Rhys 'Fadey' Armstrong |
51 - 63 | -12 | 63.5 | 62.5% | 0.87 |
After fighting their way to the grand finals, ATK would face off against Envy who held a one map advantage.
Springboarding off of their win against Singularity, ATK put Inferno on lockdown, securing eight rounds before Envy answered back. After getting double digits in the first half at 10-5, ATK faltered a bit. During this time, Envy had three successful retakes before letting their one map lead slip away, including a 1v2 by Sam "s0m" Oh. But despite Envy's efforts, ATK took Inferno 16-10.
Dust2 proved to be an entertaining bout, with several great individual performances from both sides. Rhys "Fadey" Armstrong held off an assaulting Envy with a flashy 4k from his AWP, winning ATK a force buy to keep their lead alive. The next round, Bradley "ANDROID" Fodor picked up four kills in a 2v4, lending Envy their third round. Envy gained momentum off of this, picking up five more rounds to end the half 8-7.
In the second half, Envy ended up needing the Heimlich to close out the game. After running things up 15-8 in their favor, Envy let ATK have six more rounds before closing out the map 16-14. At this point, Envy only needed one more victory to see another season of Pro League, and Train was the gatekeeper standing in their way.
Things kicked off with ATK managing a retake on the first pistol and winning the subsequent round, but Envy wasn't about to go quietly. Rallying the troops, they went on to win eight of the next nine rounds before ending the first half 9-6. ATK were able to soften the blow towards the end, picking up three defusals to keep things from being much more dire.
On the CT-side, Envy started to let things slip away a little. ATK took the second pistol and three rounds after, claiming the lead 10-9. Envy answered back with a string of their own, picking up six rounds and bring things to 15-10. Towards the end, things started to look like a repeat of the previous map, with ATK picking up three more rounds on tournament point. However, Envy pulled it together and closed out the map 16-13, securing their place in Season 10 of ESL Pro League.
EnvyATK| Envy |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sam 's0m' Oh |
65 - 57 | +8 | 87.2 | 81.2% | 1.29 |
| Jacob 'FugLy' Medina |
54 - 54 | +0 | 77.4 | 74.1% | 1.10 |
| Noah 'Nifty' Francis |
54 - 58 | -4 | 72.7 | 69.4% | 1.07 |
| Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek |
55 - 56 | -1 | 67.3 | 74.1% | 1.05 |
 Bradley 'ANDROID' Fodor |
58 - 51 | +7 | 66.7 | 70.6% | 1.05 |
| ATK |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou |
67 - 46 | +21 | 79.9 | 76.5% | 1.23 |
| Roberto 'blackpoisoN' Dall'Occo |
60 - 58 | +2 | 74.5 | 68.2% | 1.07 |
| Ian 'motm' Hardy |
52 - 62 | -10 | 72.3 | 68.2% | 0.92 |
| Dominic 'Domsterr' Sampaio |
45 - 58 | -13 | 66.7 | 67.1% | 0.89 |
| Rhys 'Fadey' Armstrong |
52 - 62 | -10 | 62.2 | 67.1% | 0.85 |
With this, ATK will be joining INTZ and Singularity in Season 32 of Mountain Dew League, while Envy and Lazarus will keep their spots in ESL Pro League for Season 10. MDL is set to begin on September 2nd, and ESL Pro League will kick off in October. For more upcoming tournaments, check out the Dust2.us calendar.
