Update: Forsaken and Limitless headline ESEA Advanced S46 playoffs as dominant squads

The regular season of ESEA Advanced Season 46 has concluded, seeing 16 teams set to fight for spots in what will very likely be the first season of ESL Challenger League on Counter-Strike 2. Compared to previous seasons, outside of the "superteams" of Forsaken and Limitless, this iteration of Advanced playoffs features a less pedigreed field of contestants, with many of the players looking to potentially make ESL Challenger League for their first time.

With this reduced field in mind, the general narrative of playoffs like likely focus on a potential finals between Forsaken and Limitless as the number one and number two seed, respectively. These two teams stand head and shoulders above all other competitors in Advanced at the moment, with Forsaken in particular demonstrating they are one of the best domestic squads in North America. For both of these squads, due to the unique nature of this season, only one of them will earn a spot in ECL S47 so the first for first will be intense.

Looking at the rest of the teams, there are no other clearly dominant squads, however a few names stand out. Hound, the tenth seed, has performed well in various qualifiers and Cash Cups and has an air of seriousness to them. Likewise, the mysterious CIS squad of ClayMakers has had a number of outsized performances online despite their lack of pedigree. The eponymous niisesports is also worth mentioning as it features the likes of Sebastian "Florence" Ogarev and Kaitlin "Keiti" Boop alongside Benjamin "niise" Mauldin of course.

Beyond this, there are a number of familiar names, however as previously mentioned the dominant narrative is who could stand up to Forsaken and Limitless.

The opening matches for ESEA Advanced Season 46 playoffs look as follows:

ESEA Advanced Season 46 is set to begin tonight at 09:30PM.

Update: Dust2.us has been made aware of the fact that Season 46 of ESEA Advanced will not feature Relegation and has updated the article accordingly.