ESEA Season 32 qualification cups conclude
All three qualification cups for the upcoming ESEA league season have concluded, seeing two teams qualify for Advanced, four teams make their way into Main, and eight teams claim spots in Intermediate.
The Main qualifier was the first to conclude as eight teams fought their way through five rounds of best-of-one matches to earn spots in the quarterfinals. Best-of-threes took over from there, but a third map was not needed in any of the series, with a quartet of teams all securing 2-0 victories to earn spots in ESEA Main Season 32.
The top four teams from the Main qualification cup are as follows:
Stay Frosty (agM, tconnors, DaneJoris, Douglas, JoJo)- Arrow (ckap, ShikeZ, -deX-, bawky, Mythu)
- Motiv8 (20^, JT0WN, Savir, msc, Reaper)
- Empire (WuLphie, hazy, JKronic, Stobie, renieW)
The Intermediate qualifier played out in similar fashion, going through four best-of-one rounds to leave sixteen teams standing. Notably, the top seeded team, a mix under the name Lakers fanboys that included a number of familiar names including Michael "Turismo" Haas and DJ "prius" Kuntz, were knocked out in their first matchup by OG Plays following a narrow 16-14 loss. The number two seed, two door coupe, suffered a similar fate.
In contrast to the Main qualifier, the Intermediate cup saw three teams forfeit their final series, allowing a trio of teams spots in Season 32 with no contest. Of the series that played out, only one went to a third map, although two of the matchups saw close contention between the competing sides.
The eight teams who have qualified for Intermediate Season 32 are:
- OG Plays (pyrite, cJ_B, GRAFX, dukaa, Jstone_Lg)
- this shit free af (uaeb, 600Hz, Cev, APE, Daspy)
- TGS (leak, consti, Jerk, pao, REV)
- Neptune's Fan Club (Lamar, Piineapple, darkest, raymer, aux)
- Illuminate (Senna, tao_fd, Eshel, 1PZUH, DrJazzy)
- Xternal (JPOW, -NicKM-, WyLd, AJIACO, eXi1e)
- calm (objekt, Chow, sleW, samuel, posteklu)
- Gusteaus (T3nZ_, nitsuj, frequency, Zenith, Flight^)
The Advanced qualification cup was the last one to conclude, with a total of 133 teams participating. Notably, former MDL squad Forty Six and 2 entered the bracket as the top seed, but only narrowly managed to survive their first matchup in double overtime before falling in the second round 14-16.
Just four teams remained in the running as the qualifier reached the final round, pitting a Tom "tconnors" Connors-less Stay Frosty against 2019 Free Agency and Serendipity against Moscow Five Yankees. Despite having fought their way through both the Main and Advanced brackets with relative ease, Stay Frosty found themselves unable to notch a map win against 2019 Free Agency, who's lineup included two familiar names in the form of Chris "Slash" Petersen and Toryon "KLUMZ" Kelley.
The other best-of-three matchup saw Serendipity up against Moscow Five Yankees. An overtime showdown on Train saw Serendipity net themselves an early victory in the series, with the team proceeding to narrowly edge out a second overtime win on Dust2 to earn a spot in the upcoming season of Advanced.
The two teams who topped the Advanced qualification cup are:
- 2019 Free Agency (Shams, KLUMZ, Slash, GMAN, BAWSKEE)
- Serendipity (draggio, GOLA, bokumbop, moopey, shike)
ESEA Season 32 is set to commence on September 2nd.
