Nouns triumph in ESEA Cash Cup Circuit Finals
Coming off of their attendance at IEM Dallas 2023, Nouns have continued their strong run of form in the NA subtop, winning the ESEA Cash Cup Finals on June 9th. As a result, Kory "SEMPHIS" Friesen and his troops have taken home $25,000, earned a direct spot in the IEM Fall NA Closed Qualifier, and a unique opportunity to bootcamp during IEM Cologne with former Liquid coach Eric "adreN" Hoag.
Due to Nouns' position in the ESEA Cash Cup Circuit standings, they were able to skip the initial round of matches and, as such, played against REIGN in their first bout. This first match against the Advanced side was something of a walkover as Nouns claimed a confident 2-0 win over REIGN while preventing their opponents from reaching double digits on Ancient and Mirage. Nouns' strength continued into their second series against FLUFFY AIMERS, with Nouns quickly winning Mirage 16-10 before taking Ancient 16-7.
Moving into the upper bracket finals, Nouns faced off against their first peer opponent, Gareth "MisteM" Ries' ATK squad. Nouns would strike the first blow as they claimed a 16-11 win on their map pick of Mirage before winning Ancient 16-14 in an absolutely scrappy fashion; winning round 30 after conceding the previous eight rounds in a row to ATK.
In the finals, Nouns squared off against ATK once again after the latter squad bested Wildcard in the consolidation final to set up the rematch. Nouns began the series with a 2-0 lead after striking the first blow with a 16-12 win on Mirage before ATK made up for the fumble in their previous bout by taking Ancient 16-9.
Moving into Overpass, Nouns started their final map of the series with a confident 10-5 win on their T-side before holding firm to take the map 16-10, winning the whole event outright with only one map dropped in the process. During the finals, David "cynic" Polster powered his squad with a 1.30 rating.
NounsATK| Nouns |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Brendan 'Bwills' Williams |
59 - 46 | +13 | 82.3 | 73.4% | 1.23 |
| David 'cynic' Polster |
61 - 52 | +9 | 83.1 | 73.4% | 1.17 |
| Christopher 'cJ dA K1nG' Jones |
51 - 53 | -2 | 74.1 | 65.8% | 1.01 |
| Carson 'nosraC' O'Reilly |
58 - 56 | +2 | 73.8 | 64.6% | 1.00 |
 Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado |
49 - 53 | -4 | 75.4 | 67.1% | 0.97 |
| ATK |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michael 'Swisher' Schmid |
61 - 62 | -1 | 86.6 | 60.8% | 1.06 |
 Gareth 'MisteM' Ries |
53 - 53 | +0 | 74.9 | 72.2% | 1.04 |
| Adam 'WolfY' Andersson |
54 - 50 | +4 | 71.9 | 72.2% | 1.03 |
 Jonathan 'Jonji' Carey |
47 - 62 | -15 | 71.2 | 62.0% | 0.91 |
| Ethan 'reck' Serrano |
42 - 55 | -13 | 57.5 | 60.8% | 0.82 |
Likewise, cynic proved to be the de-facto MVP of the event as he ended the Cash Cup Circuit Finals with a 1.29 rating over nine maps. With the team heading to Germany in due time, the opportunity can't be understated as the squad also have the stability of being under the Nouns brand until at least the first Major of CS2 next year in 2023.
