X13 and Triton looking strong in ESEA Advanced playoffs; Laboratory Services, YeniCherry, Eros eliminated
Three rounds of ESEA Advanced Season 37 playoffs have transpired over the past week or so, seeing the sixteen teams that entered the double elimination bracket reduced to twelve. Three of those sides — Laboratory Services, YeniCherry, and Eros — were seeded into the top half of the bracket, before seeing their seasons come to an end after going 0-2 in the playoffs.
Things proceeded relatively straightforwardedly in the initial round of the upper bracket, with all save one series being 2-0 sweeps. The one outlier saw Khizar "MoMo" Rehman's Upswing side upsetting Verum, who had come into the bracket with the #6 seed. The other significant upsets in the round saw Matthew "Cryptic" Whitmore and #12 seed Villainous sweep Laboratory Services and #13 seed UYU defeating Valkyrie 2-0 after going to overtime on the Overpass opener.
The second round of the upper bracket proved to be more competitive, as outside of Triton advancing over Cold Ass Riding with a 2-0 victory, the other three series all went the distance. Upswing once again looked upset-minded, taking the opening map of their series against Kinship 16-10. Kinship would respond with a dominant 16-4 victory on Vertigo, but drop Inferno 16-13 to fall into the lower bracket.
In the other two matches in the round, Pryde's 16-11 win on Dust2 was sandwiched by twin 16-9 victories by X13, helped by consistent performances from Aidan "Feral" Wood. The same situation played out in the Villainous/UYU series, with Umar "Umar" Qaiser topping the scoreboard for the former team on their two map wins.
In the lower bracket, Laboratory Services were sent packing after a fairly comprehensive 2-0 loss to Valkyrie. The same could not be said for SH, who despite losing 2-0 to Verum, pushed Scott "scottiyo" Baker's side to the brink with a 16-14 loss on Ancient and a quadruple overtime loss on Nuke.
The other two series in the round saw the two lowest seeded teams in playoffs, HeadShotKings and Infinity, defeat Eros and YeniCherry, respectively, in three maps. Much like SH's series with Verum, Infinity required overtime on two maps to overcome the Turkish side of YeniCherry. Eros also put up a respectable fight against HeadShotKings, reaching double-digits on all three maps.
The next matches of ESEA Advanced Season 37 will be:
| Upper Bracket | ||
 X13 |
vs. | Villainous |
| Upswing |
vs. | Triton |
| Lower Bracket | ||
| Cold Ass Riding |
vs. | HeadShotKings |
| Kinship |
vs. |  Valkyrie |
| UYU |
vs. | Verum |
| Pryde |
vs. | [sam] Infinity |
The full bracket is available here.
As a reminder, the team that is left standing at the top of the heap at the conclusion of playoffs will earn $7,000 as well as a spot in ESEA Premier Season 38. The next three teams will earn the right to participate in Premier Relegation.
ESEA Advanced Season 37 playoff action continues tonight, with HeadShotKings taking on Cold Ass Riding in the second round of the lower bracket.
