BHOP earns Rotterdam closed qualifier slot over Iron Blood
BHOP was successful in their open qualifier ventures, as they took wins over Mythic, Strife, and Iron Blood to earn the second North American invite to the closed qualifier for ESL Challenger Rotterdam, where the winner joins seven others in a fight for the greater share of $100k.
BHOP will be facing the likes of oNe, ATK, and Nouns in the double-elimination closed qualifiers after a strong outing against their domestic foes in the BO1 online qualifier. After staking through the rubble of mixed teams, they took their first notable challenge against Mythic in the round-of-eight. Inferno was largely a cakewalk for BHOP, as they dominated the first half 11-4 on the CT-side before eventually closing the game out 16-8.
After a strong outing against Mythic, they came back from a slow start against a surging Strife that had just trounced Infinity 16-3 just moments prior. After performing well despite the 5-10 first half, Paul "aris" Wilson was able to hold the fort long enough for his teammates to find their form and eventually turn the tide to find victory on Nuke 16-12.
The finals against Iron Blood started off with intensity, as the two were neck-and-neck through its entirety, needing all 30 rounds to separate themselves on Nuke. Brett “brett” Rhein came alive for his team in the second half, going 14-11 K/D with 102.5 ADR to lead his team over the hump to take their opponents’ map pick.
By the time BHOP’s Inferno pick came, IBG had no gas left and BHOP ran wild. The first half ended 13-2 in favor of BHOP, with no force coming from the opposition when they switched sides. BHOP comfortably coasted to a win with three straight in the second half to close it out 16-2. Following the first-place victory in the second open qualifier, BHOP will join three aforementioned teams in the closed qualifier for their chance at the $100k Rotterdam prize pool.
Iron BloodBHOP| Iron Blood |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Damian 'EMIYA' Boulware |
41 - 39 | +2 | 101.2 | 70.8% | 1.23 |
| Wyatt 'snav' Phillippi |
31 - 38 | -7 | 75.7 | 70.8% | 0.94 |
| Fern 'intra' Hak |
35 - 41 | -6 | 76.9 | 62.5% | 0.89 |
| Shane 'shane' Dressler |
26 - 40 | -14 | 56.3 | 58.3% | 0.65 |
| Derek 'dare' Brown |
21 - 40 | -19 | 54.0 | 60.4% | 0.63 |
| BHOP |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brett 'brett' Rhein |
41 - 35 | +6 | 109.6 | 83.3% | 1.45 |
| Christopher 'Swahn' Swahn |
40 - 28 | +12 | 85.2 | 79.2% | 1.40 |
 Brody 'BeaKie' Kelly |
39 - 31 | +8 | 84.1 | 85.4% | 1.37 |
| Silas 'silas' Marrufo |
41 - 30 | +11 | 72.1 | 79.2% | 1.27 |
| Paul 'aris' Wilson |
37 - 31 | +6 | 77.6 | 77.1% | 1.23 |
The opening matches for the closed qualifier are:
ATK 
oNeThe four-team action kicks off tomorrow at 05:30PM.
