Third Impact top ESEA Main Season 32; sixteen teams promoted to Advanced
Michael "agM" Abood's Third Impact have won the 32nd season of ESEA Main, claiming a 3-1 victory over Big Chillin in the grand finals to earn themselves a spot in Advanced for Season 33. Additionally, as a result of 140 teams participating in ESEA Main Season 32, the top sixteen teams from the season have also been promoted to Advanced.
Third Impact entered the playoff bracket as the top-seeded team, a result of finishing the regular season with a 14-2 record. Their only losses came in narrow fashion to Sway and Technical Difficulties, with the team remaining undefeated through their first 13 matches.
Third Impact didn't cool off as the playoffs got underway, dismantling their opponents with one-sided scorelines for their first four matchups. It was in the upper bracket semifinals where they met their first true test, Big Chillin, who had entered the bracket as the twentieth seed. There, a narrow 14-16 loss on Overpass gave way to a 16-4 victory on Nuke, but ultimately agM and company were unable to take the series over the line as they fell 10-16 on Inferno, sending them down to the lower bracket.
An absent Keanu "DaneJoris" Reyes in Third Impact's first lower bracket match against Vipe's Anime Squad left them utilizing Dust2.us' very own Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore, with the team managing to take a 16-9 win on Mirage. A double overtime affair on map two, Nuke, gave DaneJoris enough time to return to the server, helping to take the map over the line 22-20 for his side.
Back with their full roster back in tow, Third Impact swiftly dispatched of Griffin's Minecraft Gang and An1ken, with only the latter team managing double-digit rounds on a single map before they were crushed out of the series.
The lower bracket victories set up a rematch for agM's troops against Big Chillin in the best-of-five grand final, with the latter entering the series with a one-map advantage as a result of coming from the upper bracket. The default map win would prove to be the only one that Big Chillin would secure, as after starting Dust2 with a 7-0 lead, they fell in overtime to Third Impact 19-15 as the series score was evened up.
From there, Third Impact left little room for Big Chillin to fight back into the series, making up for a narrow 14-16 loss on Overpass in their initial matchup by completely crushing the team 16-1 to pull ahead. Inferno also saw little contention from Big Chillin as Third Impact continued their crusade, securing a 16-5 victory to close out the series 3-1.
The following sixteen teams have earned promotion to Advanced, with the final standings for ESEA Main Season 32 looking as follows:
1. 
Third Impact (agM, tconnors, DaneJoris, JoJo, Douglas) - $3,500
2. Big Chillin (bron, squidah, munk, dvl, nayeonfan) - $2,300
3. 
An1ken (Sharkie, Ron, Gillberg, Shiki, Brian2K) - $1,750
4. Griffin's Minecraft Gang (iannn, RatedUnder, JWS, eQuals, acem) - $1,750
5-6. Selfish Gamers (HalterN, kaokao9k, kxt, 3Est, Outlaw) - $550
5-6. Vipe's Anime Squad (Vipe, RUSSELL_WESTBROOK, distal, flavor, stev) - $550
7-8. LFORG (dior, plex, swanky, hyun^, sin) - $550
7-8. utopiaN (sherps, decko, akin, robby1, sparX) - $550
9-12. casting couch (Barney, jams, paradise, 1Huskyy, Aaron)
9-12. halo reach poggers (arato, boomscope, rum, keelo, nergin)
9-12. CLG Red (bENITA, di^, GooseBreeder, refinnej, Emy)
9-12. Neko Paradise (Blinkin_, nW^, Blayze, Confusion, beachboy)
13-16. Kinship (Vince, SolGoat, 1kyleDBF, Aidan-, Bo_oM)
13-16. suicide pact (Aceuwu, xqcL, aegis, Ocahhs, maxence)
13-16. afraid (Jackyy, DeKa, f0bless, dAvE-, syn-)
13-16. Revenant (-MeLLo, Spoice, bigdoink, Gatr, Corbin-hax-)
Registration for Season 33 of the ESEA league will remain open until January 7th at 3 AM EDT. Per a private message from Alexander "Aluminati" Rymaszewski that was sent out to all players who participated in Season 32, a "few changes for the upcoming season" should be announced within the next week.
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