Bad News Bears win ESEA Summer Cash Cup 3 over Party Astronauts
Bad News Bears have secured their fifth ESEA Cash Cup title, this time with Tarik "tarik" Celik in place of Jonathan "Jonji" Carey, who is away on vacation. Party Astronauts finished in second, while RBG and Triumph both bowed out in the semifinals.
Triumph came back on Dust2 and forced Bad News Bears to overtime, but Jeff "RZU" Ngo's server-leading 29 kills was negated by every single player on Bad News Bears eclipsing the twenty-frag mark. Triumph ran out of gas and managed just one round in overtime.
Bad News Bears comfortably took Overpass on the back of a monster (pun intended) 17-kill T-side from tarik, more than twice what any single member of Triumph managed while defending the bombsites. Brendan "Bwills" Williams was the only player on Triumph to tally at least twenty kills in the second map, he finished with 24 frags.
Bad News BearsTriumph| Bad News Bears |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Tarik 'tarik' Celik |
56 - 38 | +18 | 103.0 | 82.3% | 1.53 |
| Gabe 'Spongey' Greiner |
46 - 37 | +9 | 74.4 | 74.2% | 1.18 |
| Alan 'Shakezullah' Hardeman |
39 - 35 | +4 | 78.6 | 69.4% | 1.13 |
| Michael 'Swisher' Schmid |
42 - 37 | +5 | 73.4 | 67.7% | 1.06 |
| Peter 'ptr' Gurney |
35 - 34 | +1 | 48.5 | 69.4% | 0.94 |
| Triumph |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| David 'cynic' Polster |
39 - 39 | +0 | 70.5 | 69.4% | 0.97 |
| Jeff 'RZU' Ngo |
41 - 45 | -4 | 74.6 | 59.7% | 0.95 |
| Brendan 'Bwills' Williams |
41 - 46 | -5 | 66.0 | 61.3% | 0.93 |
 Omar '3ARK00Z' Elyyan |
30 - 46 | -16 | 64.8 | 69.4% | 0.81 |
| Tyler 'tweiss' Weiss |
28 - 43 | -15 | 62.0 | 61.3% | 0.76 |
The other semifinal didn't feature overtime, but RBG and Party Astronauts played nearly every round of regulation that they could. The opening contest on Overpass went the full thirty rounds and it took a well-balanced performance from Party Astronauts to offset the efforts of Anthony "CLASIA" Kearney, who dropped 32 frags in the close loss to the back-to-back Mythic Summer Cup champions.
Party Astronauts completed the sweep on Dust2 with a strong performance from the trio of Jonathan "djay" Dallal, Gage "Infinite" Green, and Josh "PwnAlone" Pigue. The former two players each tallied 27 kills to secure their grand final berth, while the latter finished with 25. Jadan "HexT" Postma led RBG with 22 frags in the loss.
Party AstronautsRBG| Party Astronauts |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jonathan 'djay' Dallal |
51 - 41 | +10 | 104.9 | 67.8% | 1.36 |
| Josh 'PwnAlone' Pigue |
47 - 31 | +16 | 74.9 | 76.3% | 1.26 |
| Gage 'Infinite' Green |
44 - 38 | +6 | 81.8 | 69.5% | 1.13 |
| Ben 'ben1337' Smith |
35 - 38 | -3 | 67.8 | 74.6% | 1.01 |
| Wesley 'viz' Harris |
33 - 39 | -6 | 54.8 | 72.9% | 0.88 |
| RBG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anthony 'CLASIA' Kearney |
52 - 41 | +11 | 98.1 | 67.8% | 1.24 |
| Jerric 'wiz' Jiang |
40 - 40 | +0 | 81.4 | 66.1% | 1.09 |
| Jadan 'HexT' Postma |
36 - 39 | -3 | 53.2 | 62.7% | 0.85 |
| Connor 'chop' Sullivan |
28 - 43 | -15 | 59.3 | 74.6% | 0.84 |
| Colby 'Walco' Walsh |
31 - 47 | -16 | 64.8 | 59.3% | 0.80 |
Truthfully the semifinals were more highly contested than the grand final itself. Bad News Bears secured 11-4 and 12-3 halftime leads on Dust2 and Nuke, respectively, while tarik turned in a pair of 26-frag performances to secure his weekend hosts $2,000 worth of gas money to get to Fragadelphia 15.
Ben "ben1337" Smith led the way on Dust2 and PwnAlone top fragged on Nuke, while both players finished with 32 kills total in the series loss for Party Astronauts.
Bad News BearsParty Astronauts| Bad News Bears |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tarik 'tarik' Celik |
52 - 27 | +25 | 98.9 | 85.7% | 1.58 |
| Michael 'Swisher' Schmid |
37 - 32 | +5 | 91.5 | 79.6% | 1.30 |
| Peter 'ptr' Gurney |
36 - 24 | +12 | 73.4 | 75.5% | 1.21 |
| Alan 'Shakezullah' Hardeman |
29 - 28 | +1 | 60.4 | 79.6% | 1.07 |
| Gabe 'Spongey' Greiner |
25 - 22 | +3 | 58.9 | 75.5% | 1.04 |
| Party Astronauts |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Josh 'PwnAlone' Pigue |
32 - 33 | -1 | 77.0 | 63.3% | 1.01 |
| Ben 'ben1337' Smith |
32 - 35 | -3 | 67.3 | 65.3% | 0.95 |
| Gage 'Infinite' Green |
22 - 36 | -14 | 59.2 | 59.2% | 0.76 |
| Wesley 'viz' Harris |
23 - 38 | -15 | 51.8 | 67.3% | 0.74 |
| Jonathan 'djay' Dallal |
24 - 38 | -14 | 57.0 | 65.3% | 0.73 |
The final standings for ESEA Summer 2021 Cash Cup 3 are:
1. Bad News Bears - $2,000 of travel support for Fragadelphia 15
2. Party Astronauts
3-4. RBG
3-4. Triumph
The Cash Cup this coming weekend will feature the same format, the same stakes, and the same ticket to Fragadelphia 15 for the winner.
Sign-up for Fragadelphia 15 is open and available here. Both Bad News Bears and Party Astronauts are currently slated to attend.
