Nouns win sixth ESEA Summer 2023 Cash Cup
After an uneventful first day, the second and final day of ESEA Summer Cash Cup 6 came to an end with the favorites reaching the finals and having a great brawl to close the event.
Before the grand final, though, Nouns had to overcome Party Astronauts in the semifinals, and Evil Geniuses defeated Wildcard on the other side of the bracket.
Against Party Astronauts, Nouns didn't run into much trouble during the first map, Nuke, picked by PA. A 12-3 CT-side half set the team up for success, and after winning the second half pistol round, despite PA winning three in a row, Nouns closed the map 16-6. Going into Mirage, Nouns won their T-side half 9-6 despite losing the pistol round. Nouns also struggled on their CT-side, like PA did, with the losing side even getting a 13-12 lead before Nouns climbed back and closed the map 16-14.
The other side of the bracket saw Evil Geniuses win two maps comfortably despite losing Wildcard's pick. The series started on EG's Ancient, and everything was balanced at the half 8-7 for EG. The CT-side of the Evil Geniuses was almost flawless, losing only two rounds, winning the map 16-9. Wildcard's Overpass ended after overtime, as the teams went back and forth during the 30 rounds. During OT, EG could not win a single CT round. Despite that tough loss, EG came back to win Inferno after another very close first half and a not-so-close second half, closing the map 16-8.
The grand final started out with an amazing T-side Inferno from Nouns, 14-1. EG won some rounds during the second half, but it was too late for a comeback as Nouns closed the map 16-6. Onto Nouns' pick, Mirage, Evil Geniuses had a much better first half, 10-5 ahead on the CT-side. Nouns cut down EG's lead to just one round 12-11, but the Seattle-based organization closed the map 16-11. Nuke was the most balanced map of the three, as the teams switched sides 8-7 with Nouns in the lead going into the CT-side. EG's offense only managed to claim four rounds as Nouns won the event after a 16-11 Nuke decider.
Party Astronauts and Wildcard played a third-place decider match, and Wildcard won the series 2-1. Keller "SLIGHT" Nilan's men won the first map 16-6, but PA came back stronger winning Ancient 16-3. Despite such unbalanced scores, the Nuke decider was closer, ending 16-12 in favor of Wildcard, with Matthew "Cryptic" Whitmore ending the map with 31 kills and 111.6 ADR.
NounsEvil Geniuses| Nouns |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado |
55 - 42 | +13 | 77.7 | 76.3% | 1.24 |
 Carson 'nosraC' O'Reilly |
57 - 49 | +8 | 81.3 | 71.1% | 1.18 |
| Brendan 'Bwills' Williams |
57 - 50 | +7 | 80.2 | 73.7% | 1.15 |
| David 'cynic' Polster |
45 - 51 | -6 | 67.2 | 71.1% | 0.99 |
| Christopher 'cJ dA K1nG' Jones |
44 - 50 | -6 | 65.0 | 68.4% | 0.97 |
| Evil Geniuses |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Timothy 'autimatic' Ta |
57 - 51 | +6 | 81.6 | 76.3% | 1.12 |
| Paytyn 'junior' Johnson |
58 - 46 | +12 | 69.9 | 65.8% | 1.02 |
| Jeorge 'Jeorge' Endicott |
41 - 53 | -12 | 65.2 | 72.4% | 0.95 |
 Colby 'Walco' Walsh |
45 - 55 | -10 | 71.7 | 63.2% | 0.92 |
| Jadan 'HexT' Postma |
41 - 56 | -15 | 68.8 | 67.1% | 0.84 |
