Torqued and Tempo Storm to IEM Oakland Closed Qualifier
The open qualifier for IEM Oakland 2017 was perhaps most notable for the debut of Rogue's full roster featuring Collin "wrath" McSweegan and Danish import Casper "cadiaN" Møller. However, that was a mere curiosity to the teams participating and competing for the two berths into the next stage of the qualifier.
In the top half of the bracket, Tempo Storm faced off the aforementioned Rogue squad on Train, and were able to take them down 16-12. This set them up for a showdown against the reigning ESEA Premier champions Rise Nation.
While sniper Brandon "Ace" Winn dazzled in the earlier stages of the event, he was not able to carry the rest of his side to victory against the Brazilians. Led on the scoreboard by Lucas "destiny" Bullo, Tempo Storm took down Rise Nation on two straight maps to secure their spot in the Closed Qualifier.
Tempo StormRise Nation| Tempo Storm |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Lucas 'destiny' Bullo |
48 - 35 | +13 | 99.4 | 72.2% | 1.43 |
| Alef 'tatazin' Pereira |
37 - 29 | +8 | 74.5 | 79.6% | 1.17 |
| Paulo 'land1n' Felipe |
39 - 29 | +10 | 69.6 | 75.9% | 1.15 |
| Bruno 'shz' Martinelli |
38 - 34 | +4 | 82.7 | 74.1% | 1.12 |
| Denis 'dzt' Fischer |
33 - 39 | -6 | 60.8 | 68.5% | 0.98 |
| Rise Nation |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Will 'dazzLe' Loafman |
45 - 43 | +2 | 96.8 | 66.7% | 1.18 |
 Jonathan 'Jonji' Carey |
30 - 40 | -10 | 74.8 | 70.4% | 0.94 |
| Kaleb 'moose' Jayne |
35 - 43 | -8 | 70.9 | 63.0% | 0.90 |
| Brandon 'Ace' Winn |
27 - 34 | -7 | 48.9 | 75.9% | 0.86 |
| Andy 'vSa' Xu |
29 - 35 | -6 | 57.6 | 57.4% | 0.83 |
The path for Josh "steel" Nissan and his men was not quite as straightforward as that of the Brazilians. They won a tense overtime match against Blackwoodproductions, before being faced with ESEA Main champions SoaR – who they dealt with handily.
Finding themselves matched against Gale Force, Torqued were unable to do much on Overpass. A tense tilt on Inferno saw the North Americans come out on top, and then they returned the favor to the South Americans with a lopsided victory on Train. As has been the case for many of Torqued's matches since re-forming, steel topped the scoreboard for his squad.
Gale ForceTorqued| Gale Force |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Guillermo 'guishorro' Areco |
59 - 55 | +4 | 82.2 | 62.0% | 1.14 |
 Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado |
57 - 52 | +5 | 76.8 | 67.1% | 1.09 |
| Jonathan 'JonY BoY' Muñoz |
52 - 52 | +0 | 76.1 | 64.6% | 1.02 |
| Tomás 'tomi' Guardia |
50 - 57 | -7 | 68.6 | 73.4% | 0.91 |
| Matias 'tutehen' Canale |
35 - 57 | -22 | 56.1 | 59.5% | 0.74 |
| Torqued |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joshua 'steel' Nissan |
68 - 50 | +18 | 87.4 | 73.4% | 1.31 |
| Sam '4sh0t' Mariano |
51 - 52 | -1 | 71.4 | 72.2% | 1.08 |
| Trey 'tck' Martin |
57 - 51 | +6 | 72.8 | 67.1% | 1.08 |
| Armeen 'a2z' Toussi |
55 - 53 | +2 | 75.6 | 73.4% | 1.05 |
| Neil 'montE' Montgomery |
40 - 47 | -7 | 64.9 | 74.7% | 0.95 |
The two qualified teams will be joined in the Closed Qualfier by six invited sides, who have yet to be revealed by DreamHack. That event is scheduled to be played out in its entirety on October 2.
