Envy and eUnited advance to IEM Chicago Closed Qualifier
The semifinal round of the second IEM Chicago open qualifier has concluded, granting Envy and eUnited the final two qualification spots in the upcoming Closed Qualifier, where they will join ATK, Luminosity, and four invited teams in a fight for a single spot at the LAN.
Envy were the first of the two teams to secure their slot, fighting with oNe during the opening two maps of the series before cruising their way through Inferno.
The series began on oNe's pick of Overpass, with Envy managing to work their way up to an 8-0 lead through multiple site retakes. oNe finally put a halt to the streak as they won a string of four rounds for themselves, but Envy continued to maintain control as the final trio of rounds in the half also went their way for an 11-4 lead.
That lead slowly but surely began to slip out of Envy's grasp as oNe's CT-side looked to be superior, with the Brazilians granting Noah "Nifty" Francis and co. just a single offensive round before closing out their map pick 16-12.
Nuke was the most closely contested map of the series, with the two teams trading trios of rounds at the start before oNe broke the pattern to go up 8-6 on the CT-side. One final round for Envy gave them a solid scoreline as they swapped off of their offensive side, but oNe were quick to capitalize at the start of the second half as they took six of the opening seven rounds for a 14-8 lead.
A stabilized economy and the combined effort of Bradley "ANDROID" Fodor and Nifty allowed for Envy to rally back, giving up just a single round as they forced the map into overtime. There, the team held strong despite an opening salvo from oNe, managing to edge out two rounds in each half to take their own map pick 19-17 and move the series on to the deciding map of Inferno.
The series decider proved to be the least exciting of the trio, with Envy putting up a rock-solid defense to give up just two rounds in the first half. Five rounds following the side swap was all that oNe were able to add to their tally before their comeback effort was put to a halt, with Sam "s0m" Oh powering his side to a 16-7 finish to advance to the Closed Qualifier.
EnvyTeamOne| Envy |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Bradley 'ANDROID' Fodor |
74 - 54 | +20 | 84.6 | 78.2% | 1.25 |
 Sam 's0m' Oh |
61 - 56 | +5 | 76.1 | 72.4% | 1.06 |
| Jacob 'FugLy' Medina |
54 - 56 | -2 | 73.4 | 71.3% | 1.01 |
| Noah 'Nifty' Francis |
52 - 63 | -11 | 70.7 | 65.5% | 0.96 |
 Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek |
52 - 55 | -3 | 60.7 | 71.3% | 0.96 |
| TeamOne |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Alencar 'trk' Rossato |
62 - 59 | +3 | 81.1 | 73.6% | 1.15 |
| Victor 'iDk' Torraca |
55 - 58 | -3 | 76.9 | 71.3% | 1.03 |
| Bruno 'b4rtiN' Câmara |
57 - 61 | -4 | 73.4 | 70.1% | 1.00 |
| Pedro 'Maluk3' Campos |
57 - 58 | -1 | 66.0 | 64.4% | 0.97 |
| Bruno 'BIT' Fukuda Lima |
53 - 59 | -6 | 63.9 | 65.5% | 0.89 |
eUnited took on Singularity in the second semifinal of the day, fumbling a lead on Singularity's pick of Nuke before reverse-sweeping the series to advance.
Nuke began with eUnited in control, winning four of the opening five rounds of the map to take an early lead. Singularity battled back for three rounds of their own, but those would prove to be the last the team would manage on their T-side as eUnited proceeded to rack up an 11-4 scoreline at the half.
The side-swap quickly turned the tides as Singularity won a trio of rounds to edge closer to their opponents, with eUnited holding on for two additional rounds before the lead was stolen away by Alan "Shakezullah" Hardman's side. eUnited equalized with a round win to put the score at 14-14, but Singularity remained resilient to narrowly steal away their own map pick 16-14.
A similar scoreline graced the second map of Overpass, with a dominant T-side from eUnited granting Singularity just four rounds in the first half. A win in the second pistol allowed Singularity a chance to repeat their comeback efforts from the previous map, but this time eUnited were able to hold strong and close out Overpass with a dominant 16-6 scoreline.
Inferno seemed set to be the closest map of the series, with the two teams trading rounds back-and-forth for an 8-7 half in Singularity's favor; however, following the side swap, eUnited's offense proved to be far superior as a string of eight rounds quickly pushed the team up to match point, with Singularity only able to stall for two additional rounds before the series was closed out with a 16-10 victory.
SingularityeUnited| Singularity |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ricky 'floppy' Kemery |
59 - 57 | +2 | 71.7 | 69.2% | 1.03 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
46 - 54 | -8 | 66.4 | 69.2% | 0.93 |
| Alan 'Shakezullah' Hardeman |
44 - 51 | -7 | 64.4 | 67.9% | 0.93 |
| Ryan 'ryann' Welsh |
45 - 59 | -14 | 62.7 | 57.7% | 0.83 |
| Cameron 'cam' Kern |
37 - 61 | -24 | 62.5 | 57.7% | 0.71 |
| eUnited |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anthony 'vanity' Malaspina |
60 - 50 | +10 | 84.4 | 75.6% | 1.24 |
| Austin 'Cooper' Abadir |
62 - 43 | +19 | 78.3 | 75.6% | 1.23 |
| Victor 'food' Wong |
58 - 46 | +12 | 72.2 | 70.5% | 1.15 |
 Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado |
46 - 49 | -3 | 73.9 | 80.8% | 1.13 |
| Kaleb 'moose' Jayne |
56 - 43 | +13 | 71.9 | 67.9% | 1.10 |
With Envy and eUnited advancing, the four qualification slots for the IEM Chicago Closed Qualifier have been filled, with the current list of teams looking as follows:
| ATK |
eUnited |
| Envy |
Luminosity |
 Invite |
Invite |
| Invite |
Invite |
The four invited teams should be revealed in the near future, with the Closed Qualifier scheduled to take place on June 26th.
