This weekend, sixteen Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams faced off in an online tournament to compete for the final six spots at Electronic Sports League (ESL’s) Americas Minor. Now the first four have been chosen through the closed qualifier: Furia, Gen.G, Bad News Bears, and Cloud9.
Furia
Furia was the first of the group to officially qualify for the offline event. After coming back from a devastating 4-11 start versus Triumph on Overpass, Furia captured the victory. That match’s second map took the teams to Inferno, where Brazilian players 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 ESL match, against Envy, was a 2-0 sweep on Mirage (16-11) and Nuke (16-7).
Bad News Bears
The Mountain Dew League (MDL) beasts of Bad News Bears found themselves struggling initially versus fellow MDL team Rugratz. The Bears lost map one on Mirage (10-16). However, for map two and especially three, they showed their dominance. Map two, Inferno, ended with a close scoreline (16-11) in favor of the Bears. However, the squad completely demolished Rugratz on map three, Nuke. There, Jonathan “Jonji” Carey put his teammates on his back and steamrolled their opponents. His outstanding performance earned him a 130.8 ADR, six first kills, and a 2.06 rating. The final score on Nuke was 16-1.
Keeping up their momentum in their second ESL match versus Ze Pug Gods, who had 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, sweeping past LiViD for their opening match. Map one was an easy win for the squad, who defeated LiViD 16-5 on Train. For the second location, 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 ESL match started earlier than expected. This game pitted them against versus Mythic, who played with David “DAVEY” Stafford as a stand-in. Recently, Mythic has performed exceptionally well in MDL and were not just head-to-head but winning for the majority of the first map, Vertigo. However, Aran “Sonic” Groesbeek secured an essential 1v2 clutch versus Adam “Polen” Polen and DAVEY, which ultimately turned the tides. Mythic was unable to regain their footing and fell 14-16 to the former ATK roster.
Map two, Inferno, was highly favored for Cloud9. Not only has Mythic historically shown a lackluster performance on the map, but Inferno is one of Cloud9’s strongest. Despite Mythic’s best efforts, Cloud9 bested them, ending the map at 16-10.
Gen.G
The final ESL match brought us to the recent winners of DreamHack Open Anaheim, Gen.G. This team strongly outperformed both of their opponents, Divine and Orgless. For match one, Gen.G refused to let Divine obtain 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 ESL closed qualifier
Losing teams aren’t out just yet, though, as the final twelve teams have moved to the lower bracket. There 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
Stay tuned to Daily Esports for more CSGO and ESL news!
