paiN to ESEA Advanced grand final; PDHM beat Veloz to continue lower bracket run
Just two series remain in ESEA Advanced Season 36 as paiN await the victor of tonight's series between Big Chillin and PDHM. The grand final will feature either a rematch of the upper bracket final between Big Chillin and paiN, or see PDHM run the entirety of the lower bracket following their first round loss to Infinity.
paiN had seemingly no interest in allowing the upper bracket final to be as contentious as their semifinal matchup with HeadShotKings had been, Big Chillin did not lead for even a single round throughout the series. paiN opened with an 11-4 half on the CT-side of Train, then won five of the last six rounds in the second half to take a 1-0 series lead.
Dust2 was even more lopsided, as the South American side carried a 13-2 advantage into the break after their T-side, then didn't concede a single second-half round as they secured the sweep and sent Big Chillin down to the consolidation final. Rafael "saffee" Costa led the server with 41 kills in 41 rounds of play in the series, while Big Chillin's top fragger was Devin "Xzen" Barber who finished with 34 kills.
paiNBig Chillin| paiN |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Rafael 'saffee' Costa |
41 - 23 | +18 | 106.1 | 80.5% | 1.64 |
| Rodrigo 'biguzera' Bittencourt |
39 - 22 | +17 | 96.6 | 82.9% | 1.54 |
| Wesley 'hardzao' Lopes |
33 - 22 | +11 | 92.4 | 85.4% | 1.44 |
| Gabriel 'NEKIZ' Schenato |
34 - 22 | +12 | 80.0 | 82.9% | 1.31 |
| Vinicios 'PKL' Coelho |
29 - 22 | +7 | 72.8 | 70.7% | 1.17 |
| Big Chillin |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Devin 'Xzen' Barber |
34 - 34 | +0 | 89.1 | 75.6% | 1.11 |
| Brendan 'Melloh' Mello |
30 - 33 | -3 | 76.1 | 65.9% | 0.93 |
| Michael 'Munk' Klotz |
23 - 36 | -13 | 68.2 | 61.0% | 0.77 |
| Blake 'Elk' Swinson |
15 - 37 | -22 | 45.4 | 53.7% | 0.47 |
| Matt 'dvl' Buechel |
9 - 38 | -29 | 40.2 | 46.3% | 0.32 |
PDHM swept Veloz in Thursday's lower bracket final, but it was far closer than the upper bracket contest that preceded it. PDHM secured an 8-7 lead in the first half of Dust2 after initially falling behind 6-3 on their CT side and then won eight consecutive rounds on their T-side to secure the 1-0 series advantage. Malick "dangle" Abid led all players with 27 kills, while Paul "aris" Wilson led the Canadian side with 21 frags in the loss.
aris did not play the second map as a result of DDoS attacks, and was instead replaced by Veloz's coach, Michael "Millz" Millsaps. Veloz still put up a fight in spite of their misfortunes, but in the end PDHM's 11-4 first-half lead was too much to overcome. dangle led all players once again with 25 frags while Darius "PNDLM" B. led Veloz with 20 kills in the loss. Veloz are eliminated from postseason play but still have Relegation, where they will face ImPerium in the first-round.
VelozPDHM| Veloz |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Paul 'aris' Wilson |
21 - 17 | +4 | 89.5 | 70.4% | 1.30 |
| Darius 'PNDLM' Bandali |
32 - 37 | -5 | 77.4 | 69.8% | 1.02 |
| Brian 'chew' Mao |
35 - 43 | -8 | 76.4 | 75.5% | 1.00 |
| Michael 'Millz' Millsaps |
18 - 20 | -2 | 35.4 | 79.2% | 0.90 |
| Scott 'Scottiyio' Baker |
30 - 42 | -12 | 66.0 | 66.0% | 0.85 |
| Rudy 'PALADIN' Rokin |
29 - 46 | -17 | 60.7 | 64.2% | 0.76 |
| PDHM |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Malick 'dangle' Abid |
52 - 32 | +20 | 100.2 | 79.2% | 1.53 |
| Josh 'Spoice' Betters |
44 - 34 | +10 | 87.8 | 81.1% | 1.23 |
| Alexander 'knightmare' Sozzi |
45 - 32 | +13 | 81.3 | 79.2% | 1.22 |
| Brian 'Brian2K' Ladron De Guevara |
36 - 35 | +1 | 72.7 | 77.4% | 1.14 |
| Brandon 'Sharkie' Ly |
28 - 35 | -7 | 68.9 | 75.5% | 0.91 |
The region's final two matches of ESEA Advanced Season 36 are scheduled for tonight and tomorrow:
| Big Chillin |
vs. | PDHM |
9:00PM EDT |
| paiN |
vs. | Big Chillin/PDHM |
9:30PM EDT |
The postseason winner gets an automatic berth to ESEA Premier Season 37, but the other two teams will remain in contention through their participation in ESEA Premier Season 36 Relegation starting on Friday.
With the inclusion of HeadShotKings and Recon 5 Black in this weekend's relegation event, none of the remaining Advanced teams will have to face an ESEA Premier Season 36 opponent in the first round of ESEA Premier Season 36 Relegation. If paiN wins in the grand final, the teams featured in tonight's consolidation final will also have a rematch on Friday in the first-round of Relegation.
