Kinship win Mythic Open League Season 1 over Third Impact
Kinship are the champions of the inaugural Mythic Open League following a near flawless run through the event's playoff bracket, where they dropped just a single map.
Rebirth (not the ex-blood, sweat, and tears version) managed to take a map off of the eventual champions in the opening series, using all thirty rounds to steal away Mirage. But Kinship would pull off the reverse sweep, powered by a strong performance from Connor "chop" Sullivan.
The other first round matchups all featured clean 2-0 sweeps. Third Impact dispatched DankerMemerson in convincing fashion, while tNt and Good Game PR snuck away with a pair of closely contested maps against PDHM and Surkz, respectively.
tNt failed to detonate on Nuke against Third Impact, managing just five first-half rounds before getting blanked following the side switch. The second half continued to be an issue for tNt on Inferno, as they managed just two rounds and squandered a 9-6 halftime lead en route to being swept. Wesley "viz" Harris was the difference maker for Third Impact, finishing with 57 kills in two maps.
Kinship kept the momentum from that reverse sweep rolling, as Koby "kobruh" Higgs posted 46 frags to lead the way. chop added 43 more kills to his strong first round performance, and while Good Game PR hung around in the game thanks to Chase "lowrider" Releford's server-leading 52 kills, they were unable to muster a map win.
The grand final turned into a slugfest between chop and Josiah "JoJo" Jimenez, with the latter leading the server with 28 kills in the opener, while chop started a bit slower with just 20 frags in map one. Thankfully his Kinship teammates picked up the slack and kept the kill distribution relatively even on their side of the scoreboard to take a 1-0 series lead. But once things shifted to Mirage chop popped off, finishing with a server-high 30 kills and leaving Third Impact in the dust. His 50 kills in the series were only bested by JoJo's 52 for Third Impact, but Kinship got the last laugh and the event win.
The bracket in its entirety can be found here.
The final event standings for Mythic Open League Season 1 are:
1. 
Kinship (chop, kobruh, CLASIA, Wolffe, naes) - $3,000
2. Third Impact (DaneJoris, JoJo, tconnors, viz, insane) - $1,000
3-4. Good Game PR (Creed, ohkee, exotic, CuZ, lowrider) - $500
3-4. tNt (HorAig9000, shawstree, Eley, panda$ex, Nostra) - $500
5-8. Rebirth (AGN, seziwana, modern, sherps, denya)
5-8. Surkz (Marson, rednax, H4shi, Gubi, PSG)
5-8. DankerMemerson (awf, masfats, blood, Niv3K, Shaanj)
5-8. PDHM (jams, zandy, envy, icy, bru)
Kinship are slated to play in ESEA MDL Season 34 Relegation from August 18-21st. A strong showing there could see them joining their grand final opponent, Third Impact, in ESEA MDL Season 35.
