True Thunder make upper-final at ESEA Open S54: Asia

The ESEA Open Season 54: Asia heads into its concluding phase, the playoffs. Two Indian sides- ex-VICTORES SUMUS and True Thunder headed into the playoffs and while one stood the test of time, the other was knocked down to the lower-bracket by a stern opening round opponent. Let's take a quick look at how the double-elimination bracket bo3 playoffs has fared so far.

True Thunder waltz into the upper-final

True Thunder vs Legion

True Thunder's playoffs campaign started against Legion and the first map took us to Nuke where the Indian side started on the T-side. PokemoN and co. seemed comfortable on CT-Nuke but a lights out performance from Daymake kept Bhavi's team in the game and levelled the score at 6-6. Daymake put up a 147-ADR T-side performance. Dropping just a single round on the CT-side, True Thunder closed out Nuke 13-7, going 1-0 up in the series.

wasteofammo stole the show on Mirage. The Polish rifler delivered a lights out CT-side as True Thunder took Mirage 13-9 after a 6-6 first half, wrapping the series 2-0. Ph1nnn, waste at 20 frags a piece and Daymake, w1ssely at 19 frags a piece saw True Thunder knock Legion down to the lower bracket.

True Thunder vs Change The Game

In their upper-bracket semi-final, True Thunder got off to a rough start, conceding Inferno 13-9 after suffering a 4-8 deficit in the first half. Daymake and w1sely found their footing towards the end of the map but Change The Game's early lead saw the Chinese side skip across the finish line. Leading from the front, Bhavi dropped a 2.00 KD CT-side on Mirage to fetch True Thunder a 9-3 lead and ended up closing the map 13-7 to level the series 1-1.

The decider took us to Ancient where w1sely and waste stepped up to propel True Thunder to an 8-4 CT-side. A 119-ADR, 19-frags performance from w1sely saw True Thunder close out Ancient without dropping a single round on the T-side, wrapping the series 2-0 to book an upper-final slot. True Thunder will now take on The QUBE in their upper-final matchup.

ex-VICTORES SUMUS concede quarter-final match

ex-VICTORES SUMUS vs Wings of Freedom

ex-VICTORES SUMUS took on Wings of Freedom in their upper-bracket quarter-final match and the series started on Dust2. While rev3nnnn and BENZENE got going early, the rest of ex-VICTORES SUMUS struggled on the T-side of Dust2. Nevertheless, the Indian side stayed in the game, salvaging a 5-7 half. Things spiraled out of control for the Indian side in the second half as Wings of Freedom closed Dust2 13-8, dropping just three rounds on their T-side.

The Chinese side erased ex-VICTORES SUMUS from Ancient, starting with a 9-3 T-side half. Dropping ADRs in excess of 100, the Future-Dragon duo clinically toppled the defenses of ex-VICTORES SUMUS. The Indian side stood no chance in the second half, managing to secure just a single round, as Wings of Freedom closed Ancient 13-4 to take the series 2-0, sending ex-VICTORES SUMUS down to the lower-bracket where a loss will eliminate them from the tournament.

The QUBE book upper-final

Wings of Freedon; Change The Game down to the lower-bracket

The QUBE and Change The Game started off with 2-0 wins over E9 Esports and Mind Gamer in the quarter-finals. While The QUBE continued their winning ways, taking down Wings of Freedom, Change The Game went down to True Thunder, ending up in the lower-bracket. The QUBE now square up against True Thunder in their upper-finals match. Wings of Freedom, who sent ex-VICTORES SUMUS down to the lower-bracket will themself have to pull off a flawless lower-bracket run to reach the grand-final.