MDL Recap Week 1 - Secret Club power to first in debut week
The opening week of ESEA MDL Season 35 has concluded, with Secret Club, Mythic, timbermen, and Sixth Gear currently in a four-way tie for first.
Of the four teams at the top of the standings, the recently formed Secret Club lineup had the most impressive debut, securing one-sided victories over ex-Warriors International and RBG. As for Mythic, while they only trail Secret Club by seven rounds, they played a surprisingly close debut match against Third Impact, with strong performances by Kaitlin "Keiti" Boop and David "DAVEY" Stafford needed to narrowly beat out Third Impact to take Overpass 16-14.
Speaking of Third Impact, the Advanced winner's debut week in MDL continued to go awry as the team were taken down 16-4 by Eclipse on September 3rd. The team will now need to see if they can recover from the dull start to the season with Tonny "f1ukie" Liu's replacement, as the player has exited after just a week with the organization.
Another team towards the bottom of the standings to keep an eye on is ex-Recon 5 as the Soham "valens" Chowdhury-led project fell flat in their MDL debut, falling to Kinship in a 16-10 loss on Inferno. However, with Justin "FaNg" Coakley set to make his debut next week they may have the firepower to begin notching wins.
Some notable matchups for the upcoming week are:
| Matchup | Date | Time |
 Sixth Gear vs.  Swole Patrol |
Sep 8th | 7:30PM EDT |
| Mythic vs. ex-Recon 5 |
Sep 8th | 9:45PM EDT |
| Secret Club vs. Kinship |
Sep 8th | 11PM EDT |
| NE Whalers vs. Mythic |
Sep 9th | 8:30PM EDT |
| Secret Club vs. Third Impact |
Sep 9th | 8:30PM EDT |
| Rugratz vs. Incognito |
Sep 9th | 9:45PM EDT |
 oNe vs. RBG |
Sep 9th | 9:45PM EDT |
| NE Whalers vs. Third Impact |
Sep 10th | 7:15PM EDT |
| Sixth Gear vs. RBG |
Sep 10th | 9:45PM EDT |
| Secret Club vs. Incognito |
Sep 10th | 11PM EDT |
After one week of play, the standings for MDL are as follows:
| Team | Matches | Wins | Losses | RD | Points |
| Secret Club |
2 | 2 | 0 | +17 | 6 |
| Mythic |
2 | 2 | 0 | +10 | 6 |
| timbermen |
2 | 2 | 0 | +7 | 6 |
| Sixth Gear |
3 | 2 | 1 | +2 | 6 |
| New England Whalers |
1 | 1 | 0 | +12 | 3 |
| Rugratz |
3 | 1 | 2 | -16 | 3 |
| oNe |
1 | 1 | 0 | +10 | 3 |
| Eclipse |
2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| ex-Warriors International |
3 | 1 | 2 | -4 | 3 |
| RBG |
3 | 1 | 2 | -12 | 3 |
| Kinship |
3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| ImPerium |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Incognito |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rebirth |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Swole Patrol |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| ex-Polar Ace |
2 | 0 | 2 | -6 | 0 |
| ex-Recon 5 |
2 | 0 | 1 | -6 | 0 |
| Third Impact |
2 | 0 | 2 | -14 | 0 |
