Rebirth fend off semifinal scare; win third VENN Invitational qualifier
The final open qualifier for this coming weekend's VENN Invitational has concluded, with Rebirth emerging as the victor. The five remaining slots in the VENN Invitational will be filled by invites that will be handed out in the coming days.
Notably, this qualifier was poorly attended, with just 22 teams confirming their registration and playing. Rebirth and Oceanus were the only Premier sides in attendance, with the latter being eliminated in the Round of 16 by Recon 5 Black. The other lineup that fielded players from ESEA Premier was Green Tea Party, which featured Reece "Wilky" Wilkerson and Devin "AtomiK" Ferrel from ImPerium.
Green Tea Party were able to efficiently dispatch Able 2-1 in the first semifinal, where they scored decisive map wins on Dust2 and Nuke, 16-4 and 16-7 respectively. Able did secure a thirty-round victory on Overpass, but weren't able to carry that success into the decider.
Rebirth opened the other semifinal with a 16-7 win over Recon 5 Black on Dust2, but then dropped Inferno 16-10 and let the ESEA Advanced side take them to a third map. They avoided the upset bid with a 16-6 victory on Train, but the series was undoubtedly much closer than they would have liked.
Things remained close in the grand final as Rebirth, now fielding Ethan "reck" Serrano in place of Zack "XotiC" Elshani, found themselves down 12-3 after their T-side. It looked almost certain that Green Tea Party were going to steal Rebirth's map pick and take a 1-0 lead into Dust2, but then Rebirth completely locked Mirage down on their defensive half. They allowed Green Tea Party just five plants in fifteen rounds and came all the way back to claim the victory in thirty rounds. Danny "cxzi" Strzelcyzk dropped a thirty bomb for Rebirth, while Adam "freshie" Paterson led Green Tea Party with 23 kills in the loss.
Rebirth carried that defensive momentum into Dust2 and secured an 11-4 lead on their CT-side. Green Tea Party couldn't muster a defense of their own after halftime and secured just one round as Rebirth closed out the series and advanced to the Venn Invitational Spring 2021 event. Christopher "cJ" Jones led the way for the Premier side with 27 eliminations, while AtomiK led his stack with just 18 frags.
RebirthGreen Tea Party| Rebirth |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Danny 'cxzi' Strzelczyk |
47 - 32 | +15 | 109.3 | 84.3% | 1.49 |
 Sebastian 'retchy' Tropiano |
48 - 36 | +12 | 91.0 | 76.5% | 1.33 |
| Carson 'nosraC' O'Reilly |
41 - 31 | +10 | 82.4 | 76.5% | 1.21 |
| Christopher 'cJ dA K1nG' Jones |
44 - 34 | +10 | 82.7 | 76.5% | 1.20 |
| Ethan 'reck' Serrano |
29 - 35 | -6 | 65.4 | 68.6% | 0.87 |
| Green Tea Party |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bradley 'Slugy' Kohler |
37 - 41 | -4 | 82.6 | 74.5% | 1.05 |
| Reece 'Wilky' Wilkerson |
33 - 39 | -6 | 73.8 | 62.7% | 0.99 |
| Devin 'AtomiK' Ferrell |
40 - 43 | -3 | 76.5 | 64.7% | 0.98 |
| Adam 'freshie' Paterson |
29 - 45 | -16 | 67.8 | 66.7% | 0.84 |
| Josh 'Spoice' Betters |
29 - 42 | -13 | 64.0 | 60.8% | 0.75 |
The entire bracket for the qualifier can be found here.
The top finishers in the third VENN Invitational qualifier were:
1st - Rebirth (retchy, cxzi, cJ, nosraC, reck, XotiC) - VENN Invitational
2nd - Green Tea Party (freshie, Spoice, Slugy, Wilky, AtomiK)
3-4th - Recon 5 Black (Just2EZ, Input, garret, Kleine, taiwi)
3-4th - Able (Feral, jtmythic, D4rtyMontana, kdz, Drew, Coach: KingBonobo)
The teams for the VENN Invitational are currently:
 RBG |
Rebirth |
| Levitate |
Invited |
| Invited |
Invited |
| Invited |
Invited |
The VENN Invitational will take place from March 26-28th and will feature a best-of-one group stage followed by a best-of-three, single elimination playoff bracket with the top two teams from each group.
