Extra Salt win ESEA Winter Cash Cup 6 over Triumph
After a hard-fought, overtime win on the opening map, Extra Salt pulled away from Triumph on Train to secure the 2-0 sweep and their second Cash Cup title in a row. paiN also swept Mythic in the third-place decider to ensure that they wouldn't leave the event empty handed.
Triumph and paiN both snuck into the second day of Cash Cup play by way of thirty-round victories, against Rebirth and Bad News Bears, respectively. The duo of Brendan "Bwills" Williams and Austin "Cooper" Abadir finished with 49 kills to lock up a spot in day two, while Rafael "saffee" Costa dropped 31 kills on Bad News Bears to secure the Brazilians a matchup with Extra Salt.
paiN have allowed just one opponent to tally nine rounds in their twelve ESEA Advanced matches thus far in Season 36, so it would be accurate to say that their semifinal matchup with Extra Salt last night demanded more from them than they are used to. Johnny "JT" Theodosiou and his Salters were all over paiN on Vertigo, first jumping out to a 9-6 halftime lead and then finishing with a flawless second half. Josh "oSee" Ohm led Extra Salt with 25 kills in 22 rounds to secure a 1-0 series lead.
paiN would eventually give Extra Salt a much closer fight on Train, but they conceded just a few too many rounds in the first half and were unable to come all the way back from their early 11-4 deficit. This time it was Aran "Sonic" Groesbeek who led the way for Extra Salt with a server-high 24 kills, while Wesley "hardzao" Lopes led paiN with 22 frags in the loss.
Extra SaltpaiN| Extra Salt |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
47 - 27 | +20 | 97.3 | 84.3% | 1.57 |
 Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek |
40 - 24 | +16 | 71.2 | 72.5% | 1.25 |
 Justin 'FaNg' Coakley |
36 - 28 | +8 | 71.1 | 80.4% | 1.18 |
| Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou |
29 - 30 | -1 | 77.8 | 72.5% | 1.02 |
 Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado |
32 - 35 | -3 | 72.4 | 74.5% | 0.99 |
| paiN |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Rodrigo 'biguzera' Bittencourt |
34 - 34 | +0 | 73.3 | 66.7% | 1.01 |
| Rafael 'saffee' Costa |
32 - 37 | -5 | 62.9 | 58.8% | 0.94 |
| Wesley 'hardzao' Lopes |
31 - 37 | -6 | 69.5 | 54.9% | 0.89 |
| Gabriel 'NEKIZ' Schenato |
28 - 38 | -10 | 66.3 | 60.8% | 0.87 |
| Vinicios 'PKL' Coelho |
18 - 39 | -21 | 40.0 | 54.9% | 0.56 |
The other semifinal went the full three maps, as Triumph traded maps with Mythic to secure a grand final bout with Extra Salt. Mythic secured a slim 8-7 lead on their CT-side of Overpass, but then struggled to break through the Triumph defense on T-side. The stream team managed just three second-half rounds as Cooper collected a server high 24 eliminations in Triumph's win. Felix-Antoine "daf" D'Avignon led Mythic with 19 kills in the loss.
But Mythic successfully turned the tables on Triumph on their map pick, Dust2. Triumph secured a 9-6 halftime lead off of their CT-side, but were held to just three second-half rounds on their T-side just as Mythic were on map one. Eric "adreN" Hoag finished with 29 kills, while Danny "cxzi" Strzelcyzk led Triumph with 20 frags in their losing effort.
Triumph made it look like Train would be a quick affair after jumping out to a 14-1 lead on their CT-side, but Mythic made things interesting and picked up nine rounds before their foes could secure the final two rounds. Erik "fl0m" Flom led the stream team with 23 kills, 15 of which came on the AWP, while his Triumph counterpart, Cooper, led all players with 26 kills and 19 AWP kills.
MythicTriumph| Mythic |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Erik 'fl0m' Flom |
60 - 54 | +6 | 73.5 | 72.8% | 1.10 |
| Eric 'adreN' Hoag |
58 - 55 | +3 | 80.9 | 67.9% | 1.06 |
| David 'DAVEY' Stafford |
59 - 60 | -1 | 80.2 | 67.9% | 1.06 |
| Felix-Antoine 'daf' D'Avignon |
45 - 58 | -13 | 63.5 | 67.9% | 0.84 |
| Josiah 'JoJo' Jimenez |
38 - 60 | -22 | 60.5 | 75.3% | 0.83 |
| Triumph |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austin 'Cooper' Abadir |
69 - 49 | +20 | 82.4 | 75.3% | 1.33 |
| Danny 'cxzi' Strzelczyk |
54 - 57 | -3 | 77.0 | 74.1% | 1.11 |
| Brendan 'Bwills' Williams |
56 - 51 | +5 | 78.3 | 74.1% | 1.11 |
| Alan 'Shakezullah' Hardeman |
60 - 55 | +5 | 76.6 | 72.8% | 1.09 |
| Wesley 'viz' Harris |
47 - 48 | -1 | 68.5 | 74.1% | 1.01 |
Mythic swapped in Donovan "zNf" Froid for daf prior to this series and paiN took full advantage of any disruption that that may have caused in the third-place match. The Brazilians jumped out to a 11-4 lead on Dust2 and never looked back, as they conceded just as many rounds in the second half as they did in the first. Rodrigo "biguzera" Bittencourt finished with 31 kills in 24 rounds, while fl0m led Mythic with 22 frags and was the only player on the stream team with a positive KD.
paiN eventually managed to secure a 2-0 series sweep, but they needed all thirty rounds on Mirage to do it. Mythic held a slim 8-7 lead at the half and were still a threat late in the map as the two teams found themselves tied 14-14 with just two rounds to play. But paiN won both of those final two rounds against full buys from Mythic and secured $2,000 for their trouble. Gabriel "NEKIZ" Schenato and saffee led all players with 24 eliminations in the decider, though Mythic's super sub zNf was able to equal their kill count in the loss.
paiNMythic| paiN |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rodrigo 'biguzera' Bittencourt |
49 - 33 | +16 | 90.5 | 70.4% | 1.36 |
| Wesley 'hardzao' Lopes |
38 - 30 | +8 | 80.8 | 77.8% | 1.25 |
| Rafael 'saffee' Costa |
44 - 33 | +11 | 85.0 | 70.4% | 1.20 |
| Gabriel 'NEKIZ' Schenato |
35 - 33 | +2 | 75.5 | 72.2% | 1.14 |
| Vinicios 'PKL' Coelho |
30 - 32 | -2 | 65.4 | 77.8% | 1.00 |
| Mythic |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Donovan 'zNf' Froid |
39 - 39 | +0 | 79.7 | 64.8% | 1.07 |
| Erik 'fl0m' Flom |
38 - 39 | -1 | 66.5 | 70.4% | 1.00 |
| Josiah 'JoJo' Jimenez |
33 - 40 | -7 | 69.6 | 57.4% | 0.91 |
| Eric 'adreN' Hoag |
24 - 40 | -16 | 66.9 | 68.5% | 0.77 |
| David 'DAVEY' Stafford |
27 - 38 | -11 | 60.0 | 55.6% | 0.73 |
The grand final started on Triumph's map pick, Nuke. Extra Salt were able to secure a respectable 10-5 lead on their opening CT-side and even locked down an early match point with a substantial 15-6 lead. But Triumph weren't ready to concede the series lead just yet and came all the way back to force overtime. Alan "Shakezullah" Hardeman and his team fended off nine match points in a row, though that monumental effort seemingly drained Triumph, as Extra Salt swept them 4-0 in overtime to steal away their map pick and take a 1-0 series lead.
Once things shifted to Train it turned into the Justin "FaNg" Coakley show. Triumph held an 11-9 lead after winning the first five rounds of the second half, but that was as close as they would get to the finish line. Extra Salt shut them out down the stretch and decisively took the final seven rounds of the map to win the series and the event. The aforementioned Canadian rifler dropped 35 kills and posted an ADR of 121.9 in a much more comfortable win for Extra Salt to claim back-to-back Cash Cup titles.
Extra SaltTriumph| Extra Salt |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Justin 'FaNg' Coakley |
59 - 43 | +16 | 96.1 | 73.8% | 1.37 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
49 - 35 | +14 | 89.8 | 68.9% | 1.22 |
| Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado |
40 - 40 | +0 | 71.2 | 80.3% | 1.11 |
| Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek |
39 - 39 | +0 | 68.9 | 75.4% | 1.07 |
| Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou |
41 - 37 | +4 | 75.7 | 67.2% | 1.04 |
| Triumph |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austin 'Cooper' Abadir |
50 - 46 | +4 | 83.7 | 72.1% | 1.18 |
| Danny 'cxzi' Strzelczyk |
42 - 47 | -5 | 81.3 | 62.3% | 0.98 |
| Wesley 'viz' Harris |
37 - 49 | -12 | 66.3 | 68.9% | 0.88 |
| Brendan 'Bwills' Williams |
34 - 43 | -9 | 62.7 | 65.6% | 0.86 |
| Alan 'Shakezullah' Hardeman |
31 - 43 | -12 | 60.6 | 59.0% | 0.82 |
The final standings of ESEA Winter Cash Cup 6 are:
1st - 
Extra Salt (JT, Sonic, oSee, FaNg, MarKE) - $9,000
2nd - Triumph (Shakezullah, Bwills, Cooper, viz, cxzi) - $4,000
3rd - paiN (PKL, NEKIZ, hardzao, saffee, biguzera) - $2,000
4th - Mythic (fl0m, adreN, DAVEY, JoJo, daf, zNf)
5-6th - Bad News Bears (Swisher, ptr, Jonji, alter, Spongey)
5-6th - Rebirth (retchy, XotiC, nosraC, wrath, reck)
