ESEA Premier Week 1 Recap

The first week of ESEA’s Premier league has concluded. The first matches in the Australian, European and North America regions were scheduled to begin on Jan. 31, however, the vast majority of Europe’s matches were postponed to a later date due to the iGame Winter Invitational and the IEM Katowice qualifiers that occurred this week. Although the Europeans were postponed, most of the Australian and Americans were able to play their matches.

The Australians kicked off the first week, while the Americans and Europeans were sleeping on the 31st with several matches. The first map of week one was Nuke for all of the regions, forcing each team to play their two matches on Nuke:

• Dark Sided vs Athletic Esports || 16-11
• Chiefs Esports Club vs SYF Gaming || 16-4
• Team Exile5 vs SSU Esports || 16-8
• Team Immunity vs JAM Gaming || 16-8
• Avant Garde vs Legacy Esports || 8-16
• Alpha Sydney vs The Trash Pandas || 16-9
• Legacy Esports vs Team CypheR || 16-6
• Athletico Esports vs Team Immunity || 12-16
• JAM Gaming vs SYF Gaming || 9-16
• SSU Esports vs Avant Garde || 10-16
• Team CypheR vs Tainted Minds || 16-14
• Corvidae vs Team NOXIDE || 22-19
• Tainted Minds vs Team Exile5 || 16-13
• Athletico Academy vs Corvidae || 20-22
• Dark Sided vs Alpha Sydney || 16-7
• Team NOXIDE vs Chiefs Esports Club || 5-16

In addition to the Nuke matches, three matches were played on the recently removed Dust II for the second week’s matches already:

• The Trash Pandas vs Athletico Esports || 3-16
• Tainted Minds vs Dark Sided || 16-7
• JAM Gaming vs Tainted Minds || 4-16

After 19 matches played, the standings for the Australian ESEA Premier league are:

1. Tainted Minds (3-1)
2. Corvidae (2-0)
3. Chiefs Esports Club (2-0)
4. Legacy Esports (2-0)
5. Team Immunity (2-0)
6. Dark Sided (2-1)
7. Team Exile5 (1-1)
8. Avant Garde (1-1)
9. Alpha Sydney (1-1)
10. Team CypheR (1-1)
11. SYF Gaming (1-1)
12. Athletico Esports (1-2)
13. Athletico Academy (0-1)
14. Team NOXIDE (0-2)
15. SSU Esports (0-2)
16. The Trash Pandas (0-2)
17. JAM Gaming (0-3)

Now, it’s time for my player of the week for the Australia region. For week one of Season 24, I have chosen Liam “malta” Schembri of Chiefs Esports Club. In his first two games of the season, Schembri totaled 52 kills, including a 33-kill game against Team NOXIDE. His incredible fragging ability reflected to the stat sheet as he is the current leader of the Australian league in Frags Per Round with 1.268. His teammate, Josh “INS” Potter, followed him up in second with 1.073 KPR. malta also finished second in ADR and RWS.

Although many games of the European region were postponed due to other competitions, four games were squeezed in this past week:

• Team 123 vs BPro Gaming || 16-8
• Dreamchasers vs EnVision Esports || 11-16
• FlipSid3 Tactics vs Royals UK || 16-6
• ALTERNATE aTTaX vs EnVision Esports || 16-1

While the standings are mainly empty, here is how the European region stands right now:

1. ALTERNATE aTTaX (1-0)
2. FlipSid3 Tactics (1-0)
3. Team123 (1-0)
4. EnVision Esports EU (1-1)
5. Findictus (0-0)
6. BIG Clan (0-0)
7. Team Vexilla (0-0)
8. PENTA Sports (0-0)
9. Gambit Esports (0-0)
10. Rogue (0-0)
11. Dark Passage (0-0)
12. Fnatic Academy (0-0)
13. Team Spirit (0-0)
14. iGame.com (0-0)
15. Epsilon Esports (0-0)
16. Space Soldiers (0-0)
17. Vexed Gaming (0-0)
18. Playing Ducks (0-0)
19. Crowns Esports Club (0-0)
20. Team Endpoint (0-0)
21. GODSENT (0-0)
22. Dreamchasers (0-0)
23. BPro Gaming (0-0)
24. Royals UK (0-0)

The player of the week for the four-game European week is ALTERNATE aTTaX’s Florian “syrsoN” Rische, who’s team crushed EnVision Esports on Dust II by a score of 16-1. Rische led the way with an incredible stat line of 20-4. He had six two-kill rounds, a four-kill round, and a 1v2 clutch in the game. He is currently second in ADR with 106.3, first in FPR, and fourth in RWS, all behind his fellow teammates.

The only team that has not played at least one game in the first week of the North American division was Splyce. This was due to a number of things, including the sudden departure of Asger “AcilioN” Larsen, who left the team in order to move back to his home country of Denmark. The next was playing in a decider match against Selfless Gaming to earn the final spot of the ESL Pro League after Echo Fox was disqualified for not fielding a valid roster. In the best-of-3 match, Selfless was able to defeat Splyce and take the final spot in the EPL and finalize the NA field. This forced Splyce to stay in ESEA Premier for Season 24, which led them to complete their roster by signing Kory “SEMPHIS” Friesen on Monday.

• Muffin Lightning vs VeloX Esports || 16-7
• SMAZING vs Ajax Esports || 16-11
• Team Quetzal vs The Foundation || 19-15
• Ambition Gamers vs SetToDestroyX || 16-7
• subtLe vs Dethrone Gaming || 7-16
• vitrioL vs Bee’s Money Crew || 7-16
• Denial Esports vs Strictly Business || 16-13
• Mostly Harmless vs Enigma6 || 15-15
• EnVision Esports NA vs Muffin Lightning || 10-16
• eUnited vs Blight Gaming || 16-8
• EANIX vs RONIN || 16-19
• Strictly Business vs eUnited || 8-16
• Mostly Harmless vs Denial Esports || 9-16
• RONIN vs SMAZING || 19-17
• EANIX vs subtLe || 5-16
• Insomnia Esports vs Bee’s Money Crew || 8-16
• vitrioL vs The Foundation || 17-19
• Blight Gaming vs Ambition Gamers || 8-16
• Ajax Esports vs Eclipse Lunar || 9-16
• Insomnia Esports vs Eclipse Lunar || 12-16

*Mostly Harmless vs Enigma6 ended in overtime tied due to technical issues with the server.*

The current standings for the American division is:

1. RONIN (2-0)
2. Bee’s Money Crew (2-0)
3. Ambition Gamers (2-0)
4. eUnited (2-0)
5. Muffin Lightning (2-0)
6. Eclipse Lunar (2-0)
7. Denial Esports (2-0)
8. Enigma6 (1-0)
9. Team Quetzal (1-0)
10. The Foundation (1-1)
11. SMAZING (1-1)
12. Dethrone Gaming (1-1)
13. subtLe (1-1)
14. Splyce (0-0)
15. Mostly Harmless (0-1)
16. EnVision Esports NA (0-1)
17. SetToDestroyX (0-1)
18. VeloX Esports (0-1)
19. vitrioL (0-2)
20. Strictly Business (0-2)
21. EANIX (0-2)
22. Ajax Esports (0-2)
23. Insomnia Esports (0-2)
24. Blight Gaming (0-2)

Finally, the player of the week in North America is Joel “jcrueL” Cruel of eUnited. Week one looked fairly easy for Cruel, finishing with one of the only aces, and near the top of the leaderboard on every major statistic, including total frags, ADR, FPR, and RWS. eUnited is already one of the early favorites to reach the ESL Pro League relegation tournament.

Thank you for tuning into the first week of ESEA Premier. Make sure to check back here next Monday for week two’s action recap.