Bad News Bears and High Coast reach ESEA Winter Cash Cup 4 semis
ESEA Winter Cash Cup 4 commenced yesterday, seeing 105 teams vie for the chance to join invited sides Oceanus and Recon 5 in the final four.
In the second round of play, CLG Red, who had received a forfeit win in their opening match, suffered a 16-8 loss to catJAM, which consisted of the majority of Advanced side Synergy and Pryde's Drew "Drewtheshrew" Lamb. catJAM would then be eliminated by Levitate in the next round.
Notable sides began to clash in the third round, with Bad News Bears taking down Hc 16-6 on Inferno, BigChillinShop.com defeating fiji's Bag Chasers 16-10 on Vertigo, Erik "fl0m" Flom and Mythic dispatching FakeOut 16-6 on Inferno, and High Coast taking down a Lux side featuring former SKDC member Chase "hyun" Lewis 16-9 on Inferno.
Most notably, Premier sides ImPerium, Third Impact and Rise were upset by Advanced teams Infinity, Verum and HeadShotKings, respectively. While Verum were only narrowly able to scrape out a 16-14 victory on Inferno, Infinity and HeadShotKings notched much more decisive 16-7 victories on Overpass and Nuke.
The upset train continued in the fourth round of play, as Advanced side Eros took a 16-11 victory over Mythic. Elsewhere, Verum defeated Infinity, HeadShotKings' tournament was ended by Secret Club, and RBG and Depth got the better of Eclipse and Levitate in two all-Premier matchups.
The Cinderella stories of Eros and Verum came to an end in round five, with the former falling in overtime to Depth, and the latter running into a dominant High Coast. The other two matches in the round saw Bad News Bears get the better of RBG on Nuke, and Triumph suffer a narrow defeat at the hands of Secret Club. Prior to the loss, Triumph had not allowed their opponents double-digit rounds.
The final two matches of yesterday were both hotly contested. Jonthan "Jonji" Carey and Ethan "reck" Serrano both dropped over 30 frags in regulation on Overpass, but it was the Canadian's Bad News Bears side that would nab the narrow 16-13 win. The match between Secret Club and High Coast played out on the same map and finished with the scoreline in the latter team's favor, but with a somewhat more even frag distribution. Brandon "bew" Roberts led the way for High Coast in the win.
The full bracket is available here.
Yesterday's results have set up the following matchups for today:
 Recon 5 |
vs. | High Coast |
 Oceanus |
vs. | Bad News Bears |
Both the above matches are set to commence shortly at 4PM EST, with the grand final and third place match to follow. The team who emerges at the top of the heap will net $9,000 for their trouble.
