Recon 5 and Extra Salt advance to ESEA Winter Cash Cup 5 semifinals
The first day of play for ESEA's Winter Cash Cup 5 is in the books and unsurprisingly Extra Salt found themselves advancing to day two after a dominant series of best of one matches. The other qualifier team, Recon 5, find themselves in the semifinals after what many would consider to be an upset over paiN, despite the Brazilian side's current placement in ESEA Advanced.
A number of notable ESEA Premier Season 36 sides were in action yesterday and we even had a bit of a cinderella run to enjoy as well.
Levitate were bounced from the event in their first round matchup against fijis bag chasers, while Oceanus and ImPerium held off upset bids until they faced one another. Oceanus would win that Premier matchup, but were then eliminated by paiN in the subsquent round. The other Premier squad on this side of the bracket, Rebirth, forfeited to Veloz before the Advanced side was eliminated by Recon 5 just two maps shy of the second day.
The other side of the bracket featured a deep bracket run from 5-2 ESEA Advanced side, Able. The underdogs bested High Coast in overtime before defeating Rise in regulation and fell just one map shy of qualifying for the second day of the Cash Cup after being stomped by Extra Salt at the finish line. SKDC and GGPR were also on this side of the bracket, the former notably playing without Kyle "OCEAN" O'Brien and Derek "desi" Branchen. SKDC won their bout with GGPR but also saw their tournament run end to Extra Salt.
Extra Salt's run to the semifinals was efficient and merciless. Johnny "JT" Theodosiou and his troops conceded just 16 rounds total in their entire best-of-one bracket run with wins over FaZeTwistzz, DankerMemersons, Counter Nature, SKDC, and Able.
Recon 5 weren't quite as dominant in the early rounds of the event, but still grabbed wins against FeelsUnder21BroV2, Rated, fijis bag chasers, and Veloz before they pulled out an upset win over paiN in convincing fashion, winning 16-6 on Inferno. Dominick "JazzPimp" Dimpfel led the way with 23 eliminations as Recon 5 locked in a Valentine's Day date with Secret Club.
The semifinals of ESEA Winter Cash Cup 5 are:
 Secret Club |
vs. | Recon 5 |
| Triumph |
vs. |  Extra Salt |
Both best-of-three series will kick off at 4PM EST.
