Americas RMR qualifiers complete; sixteen teams to compete in Romania for Antwerp Major slots

The set-up was fairly simple at first glance. Best-of-one brackets with all the qualifying matches set to be best-of-threes followed by best-of-one seeding matches. But, as we all know, single-elimination best-of-ones can often lead to unexpected upsets. Both regions had hundreds of teams sign up for the opportunity to fly to Romania, with almost half a thousand teams in the last South American open qualifier. Each region had two tournaments, each occurring over two days of competition. The first tournament would qualify four teams, and the second another four, three in the case of North America. In total, this ruthless affair culminated in fifteen teams who will join FURIA in Bucharest. Here, we outline exactly what happened and how it transpired.

South American RMR Open Qualifier 1

In the first open qualifier for South America, the Round of 16 and quarterfinals presented some brutal match-ups which knocked out some of the best teams in the region. MIBR fell to 9z in their first match of the second day, souring their potential for a seat at Romania. Case were taken all the way to the wire in the Round of 16, narrowly defeating Cruzeiro in 30 rounds. Isurus as well was pushed to the edge taking down Redragon in another 30 round affair. ELES, the new home of the twins Henrique "HEN1" Teles and Lucas "LUCAS1" Teles, saw their open qualifier chanced dashed by 00 Nation. In the quarterfinals, the only best-of-three matches in the tournament, 9z defeated B4 in an 88-round slog to book their tickets. On another side of the bracket, Imperial qualified over Meta, and 00 Nation conquered Isurus in a three-map battle. Case notably denied Sharks' qualification chances in the first event with a reverse best-of-three sweep, taking their fellow countrymen at least 30 rounds in both the maps they won.

Imperial, FalleN, fer, and fnx's Last Dance project, also made it to the grand final of the event. Despite losing, it was just a seeding match and they will still be making an appearance in Bucharest. Joining them as well will be 9z, the only non-Brazilian team to make it into the top four of this event. 9z managed to qualify without their former star AWPer, Santino "try" Rigal, who qualified with his new team, 00 Nation.

That about wraps up the first four South American qualifiers. These four teams had no need to compete in the second open qualifier, so the rest of the teams could breathe easier knowing four of the heaviest hitters were no longer an issue. However, though, it would be the last chance for any hopeful South American teams, so they had to make it count.

South American RMR Open Qualifier 2

The second South American open qualifier saw MIBR come away with the top seed, followed in close stead by Sao Caetano, Isurus, and Leviatán. MIBR, spoiled by a Round of 16 loss to 9z in the first qualifier, made a spotless run the second time around. Sao Caetano made an enormous effort and through a third map overtime, secured a ticket to Europe, an amazing achievement for the yet-unranked on HLTV team. Isurus and Leviatán as well made incredible runs, but again the notable result was not in the teams who made it but in the teams who missed out. Once again, Sharks fell flat when it mattered, losing a double-overtime affair to Black Dragons, who didn't even make the top four themselves.

That rounds out the eight South American teams to

Sao Caetano will have an amazing opportunity to travel to Europe and prove their mettle against tough NA and SA, while Imperial, MIBR, and 00 Nation will certainly be in the running to grab those six Americas RMR slots at the major. Of course, it's extremely disappointing for Sharks to be unable to qualify, but that just proves the depth of talent in South America, and hopefully, the teams that took their place will make good with it.

North American RMR Open Qualifier 1

The first North American open qualifier was filled with absolute pandemonium, exactly what one would expect out of NA CS:GO. Liquid, quite predictably, blazed through the competition, winning their qualification match with two quick 16-5 maps over recent Fragadelphia 16 winners Strife. ATK, the ambitious international line-up, fell flat against Complexity in their best-of-three, but it was an incredibly close affair. Both maps were decided by the slimmest of margins, edging 16-14 to the way of the Americans. Mythic, the NA CS:GO content meme team, almost made it all the way but were cut short just before the finish line by Bad News Bears, who will now have their second EU outing after their torturous showing at ESL Pro League Season 14.

Finally, there was an intense Brazilian derby for the fourth and final qualifying match this event between GODSENT and oNe. Unfortunately, both teams ended up on the same side of the bracket, so there was only room for one of them in the top four of the first qualifier. Coming off an absolute stomp in the Round of 16 over DotMax, GODSENT looked poised to defeat their lower-ranked countrymen who had just slogged through a tough overtime victory over Carpe Diem. In fact, even started that way with GODSENT taking a commanding lead on the first map of Mirage, taking ten rounds at the half and a quick three more to start the second one, securing a massive advantage. However, through a herculean effort on oNe's part, they brought it back all the way and managed to take the map in regulation 16-14, stunning Epitacio "TACO'"de Melo's squad.

GODSENT were quick to reply, however, taking their own pick of Ancient in dominant fashion, ensuring a third map brawl between the Brazilians to decide who would book their tickets early. Unfortunately for TACO and his team, they never got the ball rolling on Nuke, and oNe finished the upset, winning 2-1. Just a few rounds going the other way would have ended the match 2-0 in favor for GODSENT, but unfortunately, that isn't how it played out. Just like that, the lower-ranked Brazilian team came away with the victory and GODSENT had to try again in the second open qualifier.

Important to mention are the teams who never even made it to the second day of the first qualifier, Damian "daps" Steele's Orgless project, Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz's BHOP ECL team, and incredibly, Evil Geniuses, captained by Jake "Stewie2k" Yip himself. Evil Geniuses lost to Strife in the Round of 32, an embarrassing performance from the team who would then only have one chance to qualify in the second open qualifier. As one of the more prestigious North American organizations, not making the second day is a terrible blow for Evil Geniuses. Not to take away from Strife's victory, but a team made with the core of North America's only Major winning roster should easily be able to be in the top 16 of the region. Party Astronauts also missed out on the second day of games through a loss to paiN in the Round of 64, who themselves missed out after a defeat to Bad News Bears.

North American RMR Open Qualifier 2

Unlike all the other qualifiers thus far, only three teams could qualify from this tournament. This is because North America already has one team locked into Bucharest in FURIA, who secured their place thanks to their performance at PGL Major Stockholm 2021. This meant that even the quarter-final matchups were best-of-ones. ATK made it far in this qualifier before being cut down by Party Astronauts in the quarters, just narrowly missing out on the top four with a close 13-16 loss after choking their 11-4 lead at the half. In the Round of 16, paiN absolutely demolished Gaimin Gladiators 16-4, cutting their LAN dreams short. Third Impact made quarterfinals after a 16-5 smacking of Fourth Quarter, but were unable to get anything done against paiN, with the Brazilians taking their top-four slot in brutal 16- 7 fashion. Evil Geniuses vanquished their first qualifier woes taking down uYu 16-11 and then Carpe Diem 16-10 who only got that far with an incredibly tight 16-14 full regulation slogfest against Strife who again miss out.

Party Astronauts eventually came up on top of this qualifier, becoming top dog of the 180 team bracket. The other two teams to qualify were Evil Geniuses, who defeated paiN in the semifinals but lost in the best-of-one grand final. paiN though did defeat Snakes Den in the third-place decider snatching up the last slot available. Snakes Den are a middle to upper tier Advanced team who only got to the semifinals thanks to an incredibly forgiving bracket, placing them only against other Advanced teams and below.

Notably, you'll see GODSENT missing from this list again. They once again fell early in the tournament, dropping the best-of-one series to ATK in the Round of 16. Unfortunately, this means that TACO and his team will be absent from the Antwerp Major, meaning TACO misses his first Major in over five years. This will undoubtedly be disappointing to the organization and all GODSENT sticker fans (they look super cool).

In addition, Orgless and BHOP missed out on the second day once more. While it was a bit pie-in-the-sky to believe they would make the Major, it's nonetheless disappointing to see such revered North American legends struggle where they once thrived. Hopefully, those two teams can fix their mistakes soon and leave an impression on the NA CS:GO ecosystem.

That gives us the seven North American qualifying teams who are:

Come to Brazil Bucharest

All sixteen teams have been decided. In less than a month they will fly to Romania where 1 Legend, 2 Challenger, and 3 Contender spots will be decided via a Swiss format LAN tournament. We've seen close calls, near misses, and absolute domination from some teams. But, it's now an even slate. Each of these sixteen teams has the same route to the Major now, and it's all on them to see if they can seize the opportunity to achieve a permanent place in the history of Counter-Strike.