Six teams hunting for final MDL playoffs spots
The end of ESEA MDL is imminent, with the final teams of the playoffs being decided in the remainder of the week. So far, four teams have secured their spots in the playoffs, those being Torqued, eUnited, Atmosphere, and ex-Iceberg with 13-3, 12-3, 12-4, and 11-5 records respectively.
Torqued and eUnited were the two favorites in the league, especially considering their performances last season and the addition of quite a few high profile names.
Atmosphere was just promoted to MDL this season, having played Main in Season 26, and have been somewhat of a revelation, taking down other big names like Etherian, ex-Iceberg, RONIN, and ex-eRa. ex-Iceberg have also had an interesting story this season, as after going 0-4 down they won 11 matches in a row to secure their place in the playoffs.
For the remaining six teams, we'll break down the conidtions which will result in each team making the playoffs. The first two are fairly easy: Swole Patrol and Etherian simply need to win 1 match out of their last three and and one respectively. For Etherian however, that final match will be against Swole themselves.
This does not mean Ben "ben1337" Smith's men are out though, as if ex-eRa and F1-racecar-PEEK lose their games, Etherian would take the 8th seed.
BlackOut and RONIN have completed all of their games already, and are at the whims of the rest of the teams. (As a note, these conditions would guarantee the team a spot in the playoffs. If not all the conditions are met, there are ways for them to still place top eight, but multiple tiebreakers would be invoked and it is too much to go into in this article.) RONIN would simply need F1-racecar-PEEK and ex-eRa to lose, while BlackOut would need F1 to lose.
The other two teams would need to firstly win all of their remaining games, but each team would then have other stipulations. For ex-eRa, to avoid ties more than three teams, they would need F1 to lose, where they would then edge out RONIN by rounds won.
For F1-racecar-PEEK, they have a head to head advantage over both RONIN and BlackOut, so they would just need ex-eRa to lose to avoid additional tie breakers.
If the simple conditions aren't met however, there are a significant amount of tiebreak scenarios that could take place, some of which the outcome I am not sure. There is even a nightmare scenario where Etherian lose and the other five teams all win, resulting in a 6-way tie of 10-6 records.
| Team | Matches | Wins | Losses | RD | Points |
 Torqued |
16 | 13 | 3 | +96 | 39 |
| eUnited |
14 | 12 | 3 | +92 | 36 |
 Atmosphere |
15 | 12 | 4 | +75 | 36 |
| ex-Iceberg |
16 | 11 | 5 | +46 | 33 |
| Swole Patrol |
14 | 11 | 3 | +43 | 33 |
| Etherian |
16 | 10 | 6 | +64 | 30 |
| BlackOut |
16 | 10 | 6 | +29 | 30 |
| RONIN |
16 | 10 | 6 | +37 | 30 |
| ex-eRa |
15 | 9 | 6 | +55 | 27 |
 F1-racecar-PEEK |
15 | 9 | 6 | +32 | 27 |
| Mythic |
16 | 9 | 7 | +65 | 27 |
| Most Wanted |
16 | 9 | 7 | +36 | 27 |
| Mask Off |
15 | 8 | 8 | -8 | 24 |
| Grizzlys |
15 | 8 | 8 | -42 | 24 |
| subtLe |
14 | 7 | 7 | -9 | 21 |
| CheckSix |
16 | 7 | 9 | +5 | 21 |
| Freedom 35 |
16 | 7 | 9 | -19 | 21 |
| AZIO |
16 | 6 | 10 | -2 | 18 |
| h00liGaNz |
16 | 5 | 11 | -25 | 15 |
 Não Tem Como |
16 | 5 | 11 | -72 | 15 |
| Say No More |
16 | 4 | 12 | -123 | 12 |
 No Tenemos Nada |
16 | 3 | 13 | -118 | 9 |
| HWML |
15 | 2 | 13 | -94 | 6 |
| Wise |
16 | 1 | 15 | -163 | 3 |
Keep a watch at Dust2.us, as we will provide all the updates on the remaining playoffs clinches as the results come in.
3/23 - Swole Patrol (16) > Etherian (8) - Swole Patrol clinch minimum fifth seed
