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ESL Americas Minor

FURIA, Cloud9 and co. move to ESL Americas Minor

The first four Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams to move on to ESL Americas Minor through the North American closed qualifier are FURIA, Gen.G, Bad News Bears and Cloud9. This weekend sixteen teams faced off in an online tournament to compete for the final six spots at Electronic Sports League (ESL’s) Americas Minor.

FURIA

FURIA was the first of the group to officially qualify for the offline event. After coming back from a devastating 4-11 start on Overpass versus Triumph, FURIA captured the victory. The second map took the teams to Inferno where Brazilian player, Andrei “arT” Piovezan and Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato, demolished the enemy team. ArT finished with a monstrous 99.1 ADR, while KSCERATO had a strong 1.27 rating and 20-14-4 KDA. Map two versus Triumph ended at 16-11. Their second match versus Envy was a 2-0 sweep on Mirage (16-11) and Nuke (16-7).

Bad News Bears

Mountain Dew League (MDL) beasts Bad News Bears found themselves struggling initially versus fellow MDL team, Rugratz. The Bears lost map one on Mirage (10-16). However, map two and three, particularly map three, was when Bad News Bears showed their dominance over Rugratz. Map two, Inferno ended with a close scoreline (16-11) in favor of the Bears, but the squad completely demolished Rugratz map three. With the series tied 1-1, the squads faced off on Nuke. The final score on Nuke was 16-1.

Keeping up their momentum in their second match versus Ze Pug Gods, who just upset eUnited, Bad News Bears swiftly defeated their enemies. The boys took home a comfortable 2-0 victory on Inferno (16-13) and Dust II (16-9).

Cloud9

Cloud9 showed strong performances during their matches as they swept past LiViD for their opening match. Map one was an easy win for the squad who defeated LiViD 16-5 on Train. Continuing to the second map, Cloud9 picked Overpass, one of the group’s favorite maps. While LiViD’s Anthony “gMd” Guimond had the highest ADR (105.2), Cloud9 took the victory at 16-11.

After some slight scheduling issues, their second match versus Mythic started earlier than expected. The teams decided on Mythic’s pick Vertigo and Cloud9’s Inferno. Aran “Sonic” Groesbeek secured an essential 1v2 clutch which ultimately turned the match tides. Mythic was unable to gain their footing and fell 14-16 to the former ATK roster.

Map two, Inferno, was highly favored for Cloud9. Despite Mythic’s best efforts, Cloud9 bested them, ending the map at 16-10.

Gen.G

The final match brought us to the recent winners of DreamHack Open Anaheim winners, Gen.G. Gen.G strongly outperformed both their opponents Divine and Orgless. Match one versus Divine ended as Gen.G didn’t allow the squad to get more than ten rounds on either map, Mirage (16-4) and Nuke (16-7). In a similar fashion, the DreamHack champs defeated Orgless on Mirage and Inferno with a pair of 16-7 finishes.

What’s next for the closed qualifier

Losing teams aren’t out just yet, though. The final twelve teams have moved to the lower bracket, where they will compete for the last two spots at the ESL Americas Minor on Sunday and Monday.

The roster for ESL’s Americas Minor is currently:

  • BOOM
  • FURIA
  • Cloud9
  • RED Canids
  • Bad News Bears
  • Gen.G