Bad News Bears have claimed victory in ESEA Premier Season 36 North America, fighting back from an 0-1 disadvatange in the best-of-five grand final against Triumph to secure a first place finish. The win sees ptr's troops become the second unsigned roster to earn a berth to ESL Pro League Season 14, following ex-Winstrike's win over SAW in the European grand final on Sunday.
"Words can't describe it man," ptr said in a post-game interview when asked how he felt about the victory. "Me and Jonji have been working for this moment for so long. We lost to INTZ last year, so it's just an amazing feeling. You know, I've played in pro teams in the past and stuff but just was already pro, but this was the first time that I actually earned it for myself. I fucking love my team."
Bad News Bears had a flawless run in the regular season, going undefeated in their group and becoming a prime candidate to win the playoffs after Extra Salt withdrew to attend a gamut of tournaments in Europe. After scoring two wins to kick off their playoff run, Bad News Bears were felled by Triumph in the upper bracket final, but fought past RBG in the consolidation final to set up a rematch.

A resurgent performance from Jonji allowed Bad News Bears to take down Triumph
Alan "Shakezullah" Hardeman's side dominated the early portions of both halves of their map pick, Nuke, to kick off the grand final; however, attrition from Bad News Bears allowed them to stay in contention and fight back, edging out a 16-14 victory to even the series score immediately. Inferno and Train were one-sided affairs as the two teams traded blows, leading to a Mirage decider with it all on the line.
Jonathan "Jonji" Carey, who was the team's best performer during the regular season but having a rough run during playoffs, was the catalyst in a stellar showing for Bad News Bears on Mirage. After being a pivotal factor in the first three maps of the series, the 21-year-old ran rampant on Triumph's defense for the first half as his team took nine rounds off the bat, with the rest of the roster stepping up to cut short any hopes of a comeback from Triumph and close out the map in swift fashion.
ESEA Premier Season 36 North AmericaBest of 5

Triumph

Matchpage 2 3 19th April 2021


Bad News Bears 1Default 0 14Nuke 16 5Inferno 16 16Train 9 8Mirage 16
Austin 'Cooper' AbadirCooper | 70 - 64 | +6 | 69.4 | 1.06 |
Alan 'Shakezullah' HardemanShakezullah | 60 - 64 | -4 | 74.4 | 1.05 |
David 'cynic' Polstercynic | 66 - 64 | +2 | 74.5 | 1.03 |
Brendan 'Bwills' WilliamsBwills | 63 - 63 | 0 | 67.2 | 1.00 |
Wesley 'viz' Harrisviz | 57 - 71 | -14 | 66.6 | 0.92 |
Jonathan 'Jonji' CareyJonji | 82 - 73 | +9 | 102.9 | 1.30 |
Peter 'ptr' Gurneyptr | 71 - 52 | +19 | 72.8 | 1.26 |
Michael 'Swisher' SchmidSwisher | 67 - 67 | 0 | 66.8 | 1.00 |
Nick 'alter' Jacksonalter | 57 - 67 | -10 | 66.0 | 1.00 |
Gabe 'Spongey' GreinerSpongey | 47 - 58 | -11 | 48.6 | 0.82 |
The team list for ESL Pro League Season 14 now looks as follows:

Astralis

Complexity

ENCE

Evil Geniuses

FaZe

fnatic

ex-Winstrike

ESEA Premier S37 Europe

TBD

TBD

TBD

TBD

G2

MOUZ

Natus Vincere

Ninjas in Pyjamas

Liquid

Vitality

Bad News Bears

ESEA Premier S37 NA

ESEA Premier S36/37 AU

TBD

TBD

TBD
ESEA Premier Season 36 North America final standings:
1.
Bad News Bears - $20,000 + ESL Pro League S14 slot
2.
Triumph - $12,500
3.
RBG - $7,500
4.
High Coast - $4,000
5-6.
Recon 5 - $2,000
5-6.
GGPR - $2,000
7-8.
ChocoCheck - $1,000
7-8.
Mythic - $1,000
9-10.
Extra Salt*
9-10.
OCG**
11-12.
Rise
11-12.
Secret Club
13.
Third Impact
14.
Eclipse
15.
SKDC
16.
Levitate
17-18.
ImPerium
17-18.
Watch This
19-20.
The Commission
19-20.
timbermen
* Extra Salt forfeited playoffs due to being in Europe
** OCG forfeited playoffs as they were unable to field a complete roster


Levitate #84


Christopher 'Swahn' Swahn

David 'Delta9' Shafer

Nicholas 'hate' Young

Sam 'Noxio' Goodwin

Andrew 'Ghostii' Kehler


Peter 'ptr' Gurney

Age: 30 Team: Bad News Bears Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 1072 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.61


Third Impact #99


Brett 'brett' Rhein

Keanu 'Danejoris' Reyes

Noah 'insane' Eheart

Walker 'walker' Harris

Brennan 'grape' Greer


The Commission



ChocoCheck #53


Christopher 'cJ dA K1nG' Jones

Zack 'XotiC' Elshani

Danny 'Cxzi' Strzelczyk

Carson 'nosraC' O'Reilly


FaZe #17


Finn 'karrigan' Andersen

Håvard 'rain' Nygaard

Marcelo 'coldzera' David

Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken

Helvijs 'broky' Saukants


ENCE #22


Aleksi 'allu' Jalli

Marco 'Snappi' Pfeiffer

Joonas 'doto' Forss

Paweł 'dycha' Dycha

Lotan 'Spinx' Giladi


MOUZ #14


Christopher 'dexter' Nong

David 'frozen' Čerňanský

Frederik 'acoR' Gyldstrand

Robin 'ropz' Kool

Aurimas 'Bymas' Pipiras


Watch This #206


Jet 'jet-' Gao

Anhduy 'nguyen' Nguyen

Andrew 'VulcaN' Dominguez

Daryl 'DARYL' Wang


Extra Salt #21


Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek

Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado

Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou

Josh 'oSee' Ohm

Justin 'FaNg' Coakley


High Coast #32


Rodrigo 'RCF' Figueiredo

Ian 'motm' Hardy

Ben 'ben1337' Smith

Josh 'PwnAlone' Pigue

Brandon 'bew' Roberts


Triumph #44


Alan 'Shakezullah' Hardeman

Austin 'Cooper' Abadir

David 'cynic' Polster

Brendan 'Bwills' Williams

Wesley 'viz' Harris


Vitality #8


Richard 'shox' Papillon

Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire

Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut

Kévin 'misutaaa' Rabier

Jayson 'Kyojin' Nguyen Van


Jonathan 'Jonji' Carey

Age: 21 Team: Bad News Bears Rating 1.0: 0.99 Maps played: 879 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.71


Eclipse



SKDC #138


Derek 'desi' Branchen

Dylan 'Hiki' O'Kane

John 'yohan' Lee

Eric 'Ryze' Brown


Recon 5 #66


Dominick 'JazzPimp' Dimpfel

Tyler 'tweiss' Weiss

Austin 'AAustiN' Urb

Koby 'kobruh' Higgs

Dylan 'SATURN' Finch


ex-Winstrike #23


Aleksei 'NickelBack' Trofimov

Vladislav 'Krad' Kravchenko

Viktor 'Lack1' Boldyrev

Aleksei 'El1an' Gusev

Igor 'Forester' Bezotecheskiy


Mythic #86


Eric 'adreN' Hoag

Erik 'fl0m' Flom

David 'DAVEY' Stafford

Josiah 'JoJo' Jimenez



Ninjas in Pyjamas #11



Fredrik 'REZ' Sterner

Hampus 'hampus' Poser

Tim 'nawwk' Jonasson

Nicolas 'Plopski' Gonzalez Zamora

Erik 'ztr' Gustafsson


Bad News Bears #42


Peter 'ptr' Gurney

Jonathan 'Jonji' Carey

Gabe 'Spongey' Greiner

Nick 'alter' Jackson

Michael 'Swisher' Schmid



timbermen




ImPerium #117


Soham 'valens' Chowdhury

Reece 'Wilky' Wilkerson

James 'EllisoN' Ellison

Devin 'AtomiK' Ferrell


G2 #13


Audric 'JACKZ' Jug

Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač

Nemanja 'huNter-' Kovač

François 'amanek' Delaunay

Nemanja 'nexa' Isaković


Natus Vincere #4


Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev

Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov

Kirill 'Boombl4' Mikhailov

Ilya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy

Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy


Astralis #2


Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth

Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen

Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander

Nicolai 'device' Reedtz

Emil 'Magisk' Reif



Evil Geniuses #15



Michał 'MICHU' Müller

Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz

Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte

Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov

Owen 'oBo' Schlatter


Rise #77


Aidan 'Aidan' Higgason

Richie 'sherps' Sherpa

Cody 'Domorin' Lutzel

Filip 'Feedalee' Mitevski

Kevin 'consti' Yi



OCG #94



Michael 'miLLe' St-Pierre

Cedric 'Melio' Perrault

Brandon 'YuZ' Cyr


Liquid #6


Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo

Keith 'NAF' Markovic

Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski

Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip

Michael 'Grim' Wince


Secret Club #124


Collin 'wrath' McSweegan

Adam 'WolfY' Andersson

Keller 'SLIGHT' Nilan

Victor 'v1c' T.



Complexity #10



Justin 'jks' Savage

William 'RUSH' Wierzba

Kristian 'k0nfig' Wienecke

Valentin 'poizon' Vasilev

Benjamin 'blameF' Bremer



GGPR #80



Chase 'lowrider' Releford

Jake 'eXotic' Vaupell

Omar '3ARK00Z' Elyyan

Sean 'Inseaniac' Morrison

Jeorge 'Jeorge' Endicott


Alan 'Shakezullah' Hardeman

Age: 23 Team: Triumph Rating 1.0: 0.94 Maps played: 567 KPR: 0.61 DPR: 0.64


SAW #37


Omar 'arki' Chakkor

Christopher 'MUTiRiS' Fernandes

Ricardo 'roman' Oliveira

Tiago 'JUST' Moura

Renato 'stadodo' Gonçalves


fnatic #20


Jesper 'JW' Wecksell

Freddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson

Maikil 'Golden' Selim

Ludvig 'Brollan' Brolin

Jack 'Jackinho' Ström Mattsson


RBG #51


Kyle 'Wolffe' Greenfield

Colby 'Walco' Walsh

Jerric 'wiz' Jiang

Jadan 'HexT' Postma

Connor 'chop' Sullivan