Eastern European Make Your Mind top ESEA Advanced Season 51
Last weekend, ESEA Advanced Season 51 came to a close, seeing the Russo-Ukrainian Make Your Mind squad top the division in a short result that saw the team finish ahead of the likes of Undone, Wanted Goons, and Alter Iron. Overall, the team's run through the bracket was impressive as the team only dropped a single map through playoffs while clearing Alter Iron 3-0 in the finals.
It is the second such time the Eastern European expat community have won ESEA Advanced in recent memory, with Andrey "HorizoN" Charykov and Andrey "S0ph3R" Afanasyev previously leading Revenge Nation to top ESEA Advanced Season 48 over Strife.
As previously mentioned, Make Your Mind began their run in strong form, winning their opening series over the ever-popular Andrew "VulcaN" Dominguez's LOSTHILLS squad on November 29th before besting Mitch "gloRinsz" MacInnis' HoleSmokers 2-0 on December 1st.
On December 2nd, the team would face their most serious challenge of the season in a Bo3 versus Josh "steel" Nissan's Undone squad, with a close 2-1 series ultimately going the way of Make Your Mind thanks to a strong performance from Ruslan "Rulik" Tkhoryk on Anubis.
UndoneMake Your Mind| Undone |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Joshua 'steel' Nissan |
51 - 49 | +2 | 88.0 | 65.2% | 1.12 |
 Tyler 'Skadoodle' Latham |
44 - 41 | +3 | 82.8 | 68.2% | 1.09 |
| Connor 'chop' Sullivan |
47 - 43 | +4 | 72.6 | 71.2% | 1.06 |
| Ian 'motm' Hardy |
45 - 37 | +8 | 63.5 | 68.2% | 1.01 |
| Danny 'cxzi' Strzelczyk |
41 - 48 | -7 | 67.3 | 71.2% | 0.92 |
| Make Your Mind |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ruslan 'Rulik' Tkhoryk |
54 - 45 | +9 | 77.7 | 65.2% | 1.16 |
| Andrii 's1renaa' Nahirnyi |
44 - 46 | -2 | 70.9 | 65.2% | 1.04 |
 Andrey 'HorizoN' Charykov |
39 - 49 | -10 | 79.5 | 75.8% | 0.99 |
| Andrii 'karv3r' Levchenko |
46 - 45 | +1 | 75.8 | 65.2% | 0.97 |
| Andrey 'S0ph3R' Afanasyev |
32 - 44 | -12 | 60.9 | 66.7% | 0.84 |
With de facto finalists in waiting Undone falling to the lower bracket, it changed the rest of the bracket significantly, forcing Alter Iron to square off against Undone in the lower bracket quarterfinals. Due to legitimately strong play, ping issues, and Tyler "skadoodle" Latham's back injury, Alter Iron would take down Undone 2-0 to meet Bad Boys in the lower bracket semifinals.
This series would go the way of Alter Iron 2-1 after starting off a map down against Justin "jsfeltner" Feltner and co. to make their way into the top three to face Wanted Goons, who themselves recently faced a 2-0 drubbing at the hands of Make Your Mind.
Wanted Goons v. Alter Iron ended up being a decisive affair for the latter team as Misha "Misha" Ivanov paved the way for Alter Iron to best Wanted Goons 2-0 without WG finding double digits on either map.
Wanted GoonsAlter Iron| Wanted Goons |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Illya 'supa' Filanchuk |
28 - 34 | -6 | 86.2 | 82.5% | 1.10 |
| Justin 'FRIZZY' Gillis |
31 - 24 | +7 | 79.7 | 75.0% | 1.10 |
| Brady 'Freaky' Cobb |
17 - 30 | -13 | 47.9 | 57.5% | 0.68 |
| 'BAGEL' |
21 - 33 | -12 | 50.6 | 57.5% | 0.66 |
| Joshua 'LittleBEER' Stuckley |
15 - 34 | -19 | 51.9 | 65.0% | 0.57 |
| Alter Iron |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Misha 'Misha' Ivanov |
47 - 26 | +21 | 115.8 | 82.5% | 1.71 |
| 'clipzera' |
38 - 24 | +14 | 94.6 | 97.5% | 1.53 |
| Caden 'arias' Allison |
23 - 25 | -2 | 73.5 | 85.0% | 1.13 |
| Talen 'Talen' M. |
27 - 19 | +8 | 60.3 | 80.0% | 1.11 |
| 'flow' |
17 - 19 | -2 | 54.4 | 80.0% | 1.01 |
With the final set, they were admittedly something of a "nothing burger " as Make Your Mind used their upper bracket map advantage to great effect, winning a close Nuke 13-9 before pulling off a dominant 13-5 win on Mirage to win the series without breaking a sweat.
Make Your MindAlter Iron| Make Your Mind |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andrey 'HorizoN' Charykov |
43 - 24 | +19 | 110.2 | 80.0% | 1.60 |
| Andrii 's1renaa' Nahirnyi |
38 - 19 | +19 | 92.8 | 85.0% | 1.56 |
| Andrii 'karv3r' Levchenko |
35 - 22 | +13 | 95.1 | 80.0% | 1.46 |
| Ruslan 'Rulik' Tkhoryk |
28 - 26 | +2 | 77.8 | 77.5% | 1.16 |
| Andrey 'S0ph3R' Afanasyev |
15 - 24 | -9 | 43.8 | 67.5% | 0.72 |
| Alter Iron |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caden 'arias' Allison |
31 - 30 | +1 | 87.4 | 70.0% | 1.12 |
| Misha 'Misha' Ivanov |
25 - 32 | -7 | 81.2 | 55.0% | 0.96 |
| 'flow' |
29 - 30 | -1 | 72.0 | 60.0% | 0.83 |
| 'clipzera' |
15 - 35 | -20 | 47.2 | 55.0% | 0.47 |
| Talen 'Talen' M. |
13 - 34 | -21 | 39.4 | 45.0% | 0.41 |
With their win, Make Your Mind have directly qualified to ESL Challenger League Season 49 and will join Revenge Nation as two Eastern European teams in the division. Meanwhile, Alter Iron, Undone, and Wanted Goons are currently battling in ECL S48 Relegation against Take Flyte and LAG for two spots in ECL.
The top four in ESEA Advanced Season 51 consists of:
1st - Make Your Mind - $7,000, ECL S49
2nd - Alter Iron - $4,300, 85 ECL Points
3rd - Wanted Goons - $3,300, 45 ECL Points
4th - Bad Boys - $2,000, 25 ECL Points
5th/6th - MCS - $1,250, 15 ECL Points
5th/6th - Undone - $1,250, 15 ECL Points
7th/8th - OutGoing - $750, 5 ECL Points
7th/8th - Immigrants Peek - $750, 5 ECL Points
