ESEA MDL Season 28 reaches playoffs

With the regular seasons played out, the playoff brackets for the North American, European and Australian divisions of ESEA MDL are now known.

Even though the regions differ in terms of the number of teams participating in ESEA MDL, each competing squad played the same number of regular-season matches leading up to the playoffs, 16. Every region was tightly contested, with tie-breaker rules deciding the last playoff team in all three divisions.

Sprout are one of the European playoff teams

In Europe, six teams finished the season with an 11-5 score, with EURONICS ending up as the first seed and the likes of Chaos and Sprout following. Kinguin and ALTERNATE aTTaX are in the same bracket, and will have to play out an additional match to determine which team will be seeded third and which will be seeded fourth in the playoffs.

Red Reserve secured a #7 seed with 10W-6L, while the last spot was determined between five teams with the same 9-7 score: Valiance, Epsilon, FriendlyFire, PAPERPLANES and Smoke Criminals, with the last-mentioned squad grabbing the spot after the tie-breaker rules were thoroughly examined.

ESEA MDL Season 28 Europe will, therefore, have the following playoff bracket, with the match dates left to be announced due to busy schedules:

EURONICS vs. Smoke Criminals
ALTERNATE aTTaX - Kinguin loser vs. Sprout
ALTERNATE aTTaX - Kinguin winner vs. 3DMAX
Chaos vs. Red Reserve

The North American regular season had a clear victor, Dignitas who finished 15-1, but the last playoff spots were contested similarly to the European division, with Vision and Bravado grabbing the last two spots amongst four teams that were tied 10-6.

ESEA MDL Season 28 North America playoffs start tomorrow, and the bracket is as follows:

Dignitas vs. Bravado
Monstars vs. Vireo.pro
Gorilla Gang vs. Swole Patrol
FYB vs. Vision

ORDER dominated the Australian division of the ESEA MDL, going undefeated throughout the regular season to finish 16-0. Following in the rankings is the rest of the Aussie top 4—Grayhound, Chiefs and Minor attendees Tainted Minds—, with the rest of the bracket filled with notable underdogs such as Legacy OCE, SYF and Corvidae—who edged out seadoggs for a playoff spot.

The Australian ESEA MDL Season 28 playoffs, which also start tomorrow, feature the following quarter-final matchups:

ORDER vs. Corvidae
Tainted Minds vs. Legacy OCE
Chiefs vs. SYF
Grayhound vs. Rise and Grind

Playoffs for all three ESEA MDL regions are single-elimination, with BO3 matches all the way through. This season of MDL will not feature a Global Challenge LAN, due to it overlapping with the player break and a busy schedule, nor will the European and North American seasons give promotion to ESL Pro League, as it fits between EPL S8 and S9, but it will feature an increased prizepool in comparison to previous ESEA MDL seasons.

ESEA Open seasons for other regions, such as Brazil and South Africa, have also reached playoffs, with brackets and more information available on ESEA's website.