paiN, Extra Salt, Triumph, and oNe advance to ESEA Premier upper bracket semifinals
The opening round of the ESEA Premier Season 37 postseason has concluded with an even split between the representatives from Group A and Group B advancing to the second round of the upper bracket.
paiN controlled the tempo of their series with GGPR from start to finish and simply outclassed their more inexperienced opposition. The recent choice to utilize coach Aurele "quick" Hebert in place of stand-in Jesse "Jmp" Peraino, did not pay dividends for GGPR as quick tallied just eight kills per map, while Rafael "saffee" Costa nearly tripled the GGPR bottom fragger's kill total with 46 frags across the two-map series.
paiNGGPR| paiN |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Rafael 'saffee' Costa |
46 - 21 | +25 | 98.8 | 84.4% | 1.70 |
| Wesley 'hardzao' Lopes |
39 - 22 | +17 | 100.5 | 84.4% | 1.51 |
| Gabriel 'NEKIZ' Schenato |
42 - 27 | +15 | 91.2 | 77.8% | 1.39 |
| Rodrigo 'biguzera' Bittencourt |
35 - 22 | +13 | 86.0 | 82.2% | 1.32 |
| Vinicios 'PKL' Coelho |
31 - 25 | +6 | 73.7 | 75.6% | 1.13 |
| GGPR |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Brandon 'Sharkie' Ly |
24 - 39 | -15 | 66.0 | 51.1% | 0.77 |
 Sean 'Inseaniac' Morrison |
24 - 37 | -13 | 65.8 | 53.3% | 0.75 |
| Chase 'lowrider' Releford |
29 - 39 | -10 | 65.6 | 57.8% | 0.70 |
| Brody 'BeaKie' Kelly |
23 - 36 | -13 | 56.6 | 55.6% | 0.67 |
| Aurele 'quick' Hebert |
16 - 42 | -26 | 55.3 | 48.9% | 0.43 |
Extra Salt were heavy favorites entering this series, but RBG came out swinging and showed everyone that their podium finish in ESEA Premier Season 36 was no fluke. RBG dropped their map pick after they managed just one defensive round in the face of a relentless second half barrage of T-sided rounds from Extra Salt, but then bounced right back and stole Vertigo on the back of a successful T-side of their own.
Extra Salt flipped the script in the decider and rode a dominant defense to victory. Their opening 13-2 CT side allowed them to close out the map and the series at their leisure and set up a matchup with paiN on Wednesday. Josh "oSee" Ohm finished the series miles ahead of his teammates and opposition alike with 70 kills, while Jadan "HexT" Postma tallied 49 frags for RBG in the loss.
Extra SaltRBG| Extra Salt |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
70 - 35 | +35 | 83.5 | 80.3% | 1.48 |
| Justin 'FaNg' Coakley |
57 - 43 | +14 | 93.3 | 80.3% | 1.31 |
 Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado |
52 - 39 | +13 | 84.5 | 81.7% | 1.24 |
 Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek |
54 - 45 | +9 | 84.0 | 80.3% | 1.20 |
| Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou |
49 - 47 | +2 | 73.2 | 73.2% | 1.12 |
| RBG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jerric 'wiz' Jiang |
46 - 52 | -6 | 77.4 | 62.0% | 0.98 |
| Jadan 'HexT' Postma |
49 - 59 | -10 | 65.5 | 67.6% | 0.93 |
| Connor 'chop' Sullivan |
40 - 60 | -20 | 73.7 | 56.3% | 0.82 |
| Anthony 'CLASIA' Kearney |
35 - 55 | -20 | 51.9 | 62.0% | 0.71 |
| Colby 'Walco' Walsh |
36 - 58 | -22 | 58.5 | 54.9% | 0.71 |
In what was the surprise result of the evening, Triumph managed to scratch out a 2-1 victory over Party Astronauts on the back of an absolutely monster series from both David "cynic" Polster and Jeff "RZU" Ngo. The duo finished with 71 and 70 kills in the series, respectively, but it was Austin "Cooper" Abadir who led the way in the Overpass decider with 27 frags, 18 of which came via the AWP. Josh "PwnAlone" Pigue led Party Astronauts with 57 kills in the loss as his side dropped down to the lower bracket.
Party AstronautsTriumph| Party Astronauts |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gage 'Infinite' Green |
52 - 58 | -6 | 77.0 | 75.3% | 1.07 |
| Josh 'PwnAlone' Pigue |
57 - 59 | -2 | 74.5 | 60.5% | 0.99 |
| Wesley 'viz' Harris |
52 - 61 | -9 | 73.5 | 63.0% | 0.92 |
| Ben 'ben1337' Smith |
46 - 57 | -11 | 67.6 | 65.4% | 0.86 |
| Jonathan 'djay' Dallal |
41 - 58 | -17 | 56.9 | 64.2% | 0.84 |
| Triumph |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| David 'cynic' Polster |
71 - 45 | +26 | 84.9 | 81.5% | 1.35 |
| Jeff 'RZU' Ngo |
70 - 53 | +17 | 84.4 | 72.8% | 1.26 |
| Brendan 'Bwills' Williams |
57 - 49 | +8 | 76.0 | 79.0% | 1.13 |
| Austin 'Cooper' Abadir |
51 - 53 | -2 | 68.3 | 66.7% | 1.03 |
| Tyler 'tweiss' Weiss |
43 - 50 | -7 | 68.4 | 72.8% | 0.91 |
In spite of their usual lineup being shaken up, ChocoCheck gave oNe a run for their money. Danny "cxzi" Strzelczyk and friends snuck out of the first half of Nuke with a slim 8-7 lead and hung around to the bitter end before dropping the final two rounds of regulation. Unfortunately for ChocoCheck, Enzo "xns" Henrique came alive and posted his best map against substantial competition since joining oNe. 28 of his 47 kills in the series came on the first map, which set him up to finish with a 1.21 rating, markedly above his regular season average of 0.97.
ChocoCheck played tough for the first half of Mirage as well, but oNe took their 8-7 lead at the half and quickly created more separation to secure the series sweep. This time Mario "malbsMd" Samayoa led the way for all players with 27 kills, while cxzi led ChocoCheck with 24 frags as he and his teammates fell to the lower bracket where they will meet Party Astronauts.
ChocoCheckTeamOne| ChocoCheck |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Danny 'cxzi' Strzelczyk |
47 - 39 | +8 | 96.0 | 70.7% | 1.25 |
| Christopher 'cJ dA K1nG' Jones |
49 - 35 | +14 | 81.1 | 70.7% | 1.19 |
| Bobby 'stamina' Eitrem |
40 - 43 | -3 | 75.5 | 67.2% | 1.01 |
| Dominick 'JazzPimp' Dimpfel |
29 - 42 | -13 | 58.4 | 70.7% | 0.84 |
| Daniel 'tropiiical' Elshani |
33 - 48 | -15 | 56.9 | 62.1% | 0.74 |
| TeamOne |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enzo 'xns' Henrique |
47 - 36 | +11 | 85.0 | 67.2% | 1.21 |
| Matheus 'prt' Scuvero |
44 - 37 | +7 | 75.9 | 75.9% | 1.15 |
| Pedro 'Maluk3' Campos |
37 - 40 | -3 | 78.3 | 77.6% | 1.14 |
 Mario 'malbsMd' Samayoa |
46 - 42 | +4 | 79.7 | 67.2% | 1.09 |
| Matheus 'pesadelo' Panisset |
33 - 43 | -10 | 71.0 | 65.5% | 0.84 |
Wednesday's four series will be:
| paiN |
vs. |  Extra Salt |
| oNe |
vs. | Triumph |
| RBG |
vs. | GGPR |
| Party Astronauts |
vs. | ChocoCheck |
Tomorrow's matches will all begin simultaneously at 7PM EDT.
