ESEA Intermediate Season 59 Opening Week: Downforce upsets ex-Arcade, Abyssal asserts superiority

While tier-one OCE Counter-Strike has had its fair share of developments these past few weeks, there's been plenty of surprises as ESEA Intermediate Season 59 kicked off on Monday. 

The opening week of ESEA Intermediate revealed a highly competitive start to the season, including your usual week one upsets and shocks.

Abyssal continues to dominate second tier

Reigning champions Abyssal produced convincing 13-7 and 13-8 wins over Staqued and Invictus respectively, before dismantling newcomers Downforce 13-0 in a classic Dust II stomp. 

Despite roster moves in Abyssal including the departure of longstanding members Maclane “gump” Cross (to inactivity) and Jayden “foggers” Graham (to Rooster), they’ve more than made up for the losses with the addition of CS:GO veteran Marvin “Forleks” Tran and ex-Mindfreak star Jye “zune” Pollock.

Intermediate newbies Downforce stun ex-Arcade 

One of the more exciting results of the week was Downforce’s unexpected 16-14 Mirage upset victory over ex-Arcade, which baffled many in the scene considering the firepower of the Downforce roster and their humiliating 13-0 opening loss to Abyssal earlier in the week.

George “sniperdan” Greenhall (who has been publicly acknowledged in the FACEIT blocklists of many top OCE pros) described the game as “pretty easy to be honest,” in a post-game interview with Twitch caster and personality “hazwenka”. In contrast, big-site anchor Johnson “chron” Le mentioned it was “a tough game, and I’m honestly surprised we pulled through with it”.

Albeit an outlier in ex-Arcade’s usual performances, the team pulled through against stronger opponents with 13-9 and 13-8 wins against Staqued and Retirement Too, still demonstrating promise for contending the top positions of Intermediate this season.

New-look LFO 8 opens tenure with narrow win; promoted teams face early struggles

LFO 8 (formerly DXA) scraped by with a 13-11 victory on Cache over rivals madLikewizards, helped along by the absence of Tyson “asap” Paterson following his move to BC.Game. 

Up-and-coming core member Junn “junn” Ming Tang helped the orgless squad to success with a 25-13 performance, remarking that it “could have been a cleaner win, for sure” and that “we did well considering we had Cookie and Myst playing their first officials with us.”

Newly-promoted ESEA open teams Mikey McSnuggles and Invictus have so far struggled to secure victories within Intermediate, albeit remaining competitive in their maps. Mikey McSnuggles fell 13-11 against Staqued in a tough loss, although star player Lucas “zanz” King remains confident about their upcoming season. 

“We’re looking to take forward some momentum from last season's open win even with the roster changes and see how deep we can go,” zanz said in a comment to DFRAG.

Invictus, on the other hand, have endured a difficult introduction to Intermediate, succumbing to both BGNS Orange and Abyssal 13-8.

Elsewhere in Intermediate, MARKnLARRY, led by distinguished VERTEX veterans Toby “BRACE” Barnes and James “Roflko” Lytras, has found encouraging wins over S58 finalists 5dads and Retirement Too, placing the team on track for a positive Intermediate season to come.

Despite Abyssal establishing themselves as early favourites, close results amongst up-and-coming teams are shaping this Intermediate season to be increasingly competitive. Will the usual top dogs of tier two Oceanic Counter-Strike be able to retain their dominance?

ESEA Intermediate S59 continues on October 12:

• Monday, October 12
  • Invictus vs. Mikey McSnuggles; Downforce vs. MARKnLARRY; Mikey McSnuggles vs. BGNS Orange
• Wednesday, October 14
  • 5dads vs. Orgless; Invictus vs. ex-Arcade; Orgless vs. Retirement Too; madLikewizards vs. 5dads; BGNS Orange vs. sweet bix; Fruju vs. Downforce
• Thursday, October 15
  • MARKnLARRY vs. Staqued; sweet bix vs. madLikewizards; Retirement Too vs. Fruju