Akimbo win ESEA Advanced Season 50 following marathon series
The mighty Mongolians of Akimbo have won ESEA Advanced Season 50, completing their upper bracket run in playoffs by winning a 3-2 marathon of a series against undefined last night. The incredibly close win sees Akimbo take home $7,000 while also earning a coveted spot in ESL Challenger League Season 49, with the team set to compete against some of NA's best teams after turning heads in recent months amidst massive improvement and strong results from the unique lineup.
The road to the grand finals began on September 19th with undefined facing off against InControl in the lower bracket final. Mason "mason" Watkins and co. played a close series against undefined despite a 2-0 loss, initially dropping their map pick, Nuke 13-8, despite an attempt at a rally in the second half before playing a much more competitive game on Mirage that required an overtime 16-13 win from undefined to dispatch InControl.
InControlundefined| InControl |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Zander 'FIEND' Bates |
34 - 32 | +2 | 63.6 | 66.0% | 1.00 |
| Ty 'TyRa' Aron |
28 - 37 | -9 | 68.7 | 72.0% | 0.99 |
 Dylan 'DYLAN' Frivalt |
28 - 36 | -8 | 69.6 | 66.0% | 0.93 |
| Mason 'mason' Watkins |
29 - 36 | -7 | 74.7 | 52.0% | 0.87 |
| Justin 'jsfeltner' Feltner |
27 - 35 | -8 | 58.6 | 62.0% | 0.77 |
| undefined |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Connor 'chop' Sullivan |
41 - 32 | +9 | 88.3 | 78.0% | 1.30 |
| Anthony 'CLASIA' Kearney |
36 - 28 | +8 | 76.9 | 74.0% | 1.19 |
| Ian 'motm' Hardy |
34 - 26 | +8 | 79.6 | 70.0% | 1.19 |
| Bobby 'stamina' Eitrem |
33 - 29 | +4 | 60.0 | 74.0% | 1.08 |
| Brody 'BeaKie' Kelly |
32 - 31 | +1 | 69.0 | 76.0% | 1.07 |
With that series out of the way, undefined finally had their chance at a rematch versus Akimbo, with the team aiming to avenge a 2-1 loss earlier in playoffs. Even with Akimbo starting the series with a 1-0 lead due to coming from the upper bracket, undefined were insistent on making the finals as close as possible, with Mirage kicking off the series with a triple overtime heater that saw undefined struggle to close out the map before finally taking it 22-20.
Moving onto Inferno, Akimbo began their T-side in a dominant position as Yizhi "zy" Zhou helped power his team to an early 9-3 lead. This lead would shrink significantly as undefined began their T-side by winning seven out of the first nine rounds, however Akimbo would avoid having to potentially reverse sweep undefined as they claimed Inferno 13-10.
The next map in the series, Anubis, was the only map of the four played to be a decisive victory, with Bobby "stamina" Eitrem calling an immaculate CT-side to start off 9-0 in the lead before conceding three rounds at the end of the half. This would ultimately lead into a perfect T-side seeing undefined take Anubis 13-3.
With the series now tied up 2-2, Nuke returned to the series' trend of being extremely close, with the opening half ultimately narrowly being won by undefined 7-5. After switching sides, while Nuke continued to be close and feature individual heroics from both teams, the nearly five hour series definitely began to wear down undefined, with missed shots and misplays giving Akimbo room to sneak ahead. When the smoke cleared, an 8-2 T-side from Akimbo allowed the Mongolian team to narrowly secure Nuke 13-9 and win the series 3-2, taking home first place after 103 rounds of play.
Akimboundefined| Akimbo |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Maks 'laxiee' Andryei |
82 - 76 | +6 | 85.9 | 72.8% | 1.18 |
| Bishrel 'N2o' Tamir |
78 - 79 | -1 | 80.0 | 62.1% | 1.08 |
 Yizhi 'kralz ' Zhou |
64 - 73 | -9 | 75.3 | 74.8% | 0.98 |
| Ochirbileg 'obi' Shinebaatar |
60 - 74 | -14 | 73.8 | 68.9% | 0.96 |
| Kamron 'kmrn' Manii |
62 - 73 | -11 | 55.3 | 68.0% | 0.83 |
| undefined |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Connor 'chop' Sullivan |
85 - 68 | +17 | 87.2 | 76.7% | 1.30 |
| Bobby 'stamina' Eitrem |
82 - 75 | +7 | 84.7 | 68.9% | 1.19 |
| Ian 'motm' Hardy |
81 - 72 | +9 | 80.6 | 70.9% | 1.14 |
| Anthony 'CLASIA' Kearney |
64 - 70 | -6 | 68.8 | 73.8% | 1.02 |
| Brody 'BeaKie' Kelly |
58 - 65 | -7 | 65.2 | 71.8% | 0.99 |
With the final done and dusted, Akimbo will now get ready to make their ECL debut next season after playing a historic final that was the first NA Advanced four-mapper since Season 44 when X13 faced off against Take Flyte.
