Cloud9 stunned by New Identity; other favorites notch wins in Americas Minor NA Closed Qualifier
The first day of the Americas Minor North America Closed Qualifier has concluded, sending eight teams through to the upper bracket quarterfinals and an additional eight down to the first round of the lower bracket.
The most shocking result of the day saw Cloud9 fall in their opening matchup, with a dominant 16-2 scoreline on Mirage for Maikil "Golden" Selim and co. giving way to a swift reverse-sweep from the MDL side of New Identity.
Although they opened the series with a decisive victory on their opponents map pick, Cloud9 were unable to keep the momentum going on their own pick of Nuke. A T-side start saw Cloud9 string together rounds on only one occasion, winning three in a row to bring their total of rounds in the half up to five.
Following the side swap, New Identity were unrelenting in their aggression with Jonathan "Jonji" Carey leading the way, mustering 27 kills and boasting 133.7 ADR to grant Cloud9 just two additional rounds before closing out the map 16-7.
The deciding map of Inferno went much the same, this time with Collin "wrath" McSweegan and Sebastian "seb" Bucki powering New Identity to a 9-3 lead. Cloud9 managed to add a trio of rounds to their tally as the half drew to a close, but their efforts following the swapping of sides were swiftly put to a halt as they only managed a string od three rounds before they were sent packing 16-9.
Cloud9New Identity| Cloud9 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 René 'cajunb' Borg |
56 - 46 | +10 | 84.6 | 69.7% | 1.21 |
 Timothy 'autimatic' Ta |
42 - 42 | +0 | 71.8 | 71.2% | 0.99 |
| William 'RUSH' Wierzba |
44 - 47 | -3 | 75.1 | 62.1% | 0.99 |
| Daniel 'vice' Kim |
34 - 48 | -14 | 61.2 | 60.6% | 0.78 |
 Maikil 'Golden' Selim |
33 - 48 | -15 | 60.1 | 60.6% | 0.74 |
| New Identity |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jonathan 'Jonji' Carey |
56 - 43 | +13 | 97.5 | 81.8% | 1.36 |
| Collin 'wrath' McSweegan |
54 - 41 | +13 | 73.3 | 75.8% | 1.24 |
| Sebastian 'seb' Bucki |
49 - 40 | +9 | 72.7 | 74.2% | 1.11 |
| Skyler 'Relyks' Weaver |
36 - 39 | -3 | 63.9 | 65.2% | 0.99 |
| Will 'dazzLe' Loafman |
36 - 47 | -11 | 73.3 | 75.8% | 0.94 |
Four of the other results from the first day were quite clear cut, beginning with FURIA picking up a forfeit win over Peeker's Advantage as two of the latter team's players were unable to play today. In terms of matches that were actually played, NRG and eUnited had an easy time of things as they secured wins over Mythic and The Quest, respectively, with neither team allowing their opponent to attain double-digit rounds.
A Pujan "FNS" Mehta-led Lazarus were also swift in their win over Envy, although Aran "Sonic" Gresbeek's side did manage a 16-11 win on Nuke before they were dismantled on Mirage and Train 16-2 and 16-5, respectively.
The last series that resulted in all three maps being played was between ATK and oNe, with the Brazilian side taking home the victory thanks to a number of clutches by Bruno "bit" Lima and individual performances from Alencar "trk" Rossato and 17-year-old Bruno "b4rtiN" Câmara.
Despite putting up an 8-0 lead, claiming a 12-3 halftime scoreline, and winning two rounds at the start of the second half, oNe struggled to close out the series opener of Overpass. An ATK featuring Spencer "Hiko" Martin for the first time managed to claw back a string of nine rounds before oNe finally pulled themselves over the finish line, taking a 16-12 map victory.
The Brazilian team's form continued into Inferno as they opened the map with six rounds to their name, with ATK replying with five rounds of their own before oNe took another substantial lead at the half for a 10-5 scoreline. This time oNe were unable to add another pistol round victory to their tally, with ATK taking firm control on the defensive side to grant the Brazilians just three rounds as they pulled off a comeback, answering back with a 16-13 win to force the series to a deciding map.
The comeback seemed to put ATK in a solid position to make the final map competitive, with the team opening up the map with a 5-2 lead on the T-side. Unfortunately for the South Africans, once oNe's economy stabilized the control of the map quickly switched hands, with the Brazilians granting ATK just a single additional round as they cruised their way to a 16-6 scoreline.
ATKTeamOne| ATK |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou |
54 - 57 | -3 | 82.1 | 70.9% | 1.05 |
| Roberto 'blackpoisoN' Dall'Occo |
56 - 55 | +1 | 72.3 | 64.6% | 1.04 |
| Spencer 'Hiko' Martin |
50 - 55 | -5 | 71.6 | 69.6% | 0.96 |
| Dominic 'Domsterr' Sampaio |
53 - 59 | -6 | 69.0 | 67.1% | 0.93 |
| Rhys 'Fadey' Armstrong |
41 - 62 | -21 | 60.2 | 63.3% | 0.83 |
| TeamOne |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Bruno 'b4rtiN' Câmara |
65 - 51 | +14 | 91.7 | 70.9% | 1.32 |
| Alencar 'trk' Rossato |
65 - 53 | +12 | 82.9 | 78.5% | 1.22 |
| Victor 'iDk' Torraca |
56 - 50 | +6 | 73.8 | 78.5% | 1.18 |
| Pedro 'Maluk3' Campos |
59 - 46 | +13 | 71.9 | 75.9% | 1.15 |
| Bruno 'BIT' Fukuda Lima |
42 - 55 | -13 | 67.5 | 77.2% | 1.00 |
oNe were not the only Brazilian team to take dominant control of a map, with Luminosity mirroring their countrymen's performance on Train against Party Astronauts.
Much like oNe, Luminosity took a firm lead in their series against Party Astronauts, mustering an 8-1 lead on Dust2 before Ian "motm" Hardy's side began to rally back. Although the American team managed to narrow the gap to 6-9 as they swapped sides, Luminosity were swift to crush their hopes as they opened the second half by winning six of the first seven rounds to immediately claim match point.
Despite needing just a single round to close out the map, Luminosity struggled to take it over the line as Party Astronauts won seven rounds straight, with the Brazilians only narrowly edging out the victory 16-14.
Train proved to be a CT-sided affair, with Luminosity managing just four rounds on their offensive side while Party Astronauts racked up eleven rounds of their own. Once the sides swapped over however, motm and co. were unable to put up any additional rounds for their side, with Lucas "steel" Lopes helping his side to a twelve-round streak to secure a 16-11 victory.
LuminosityParty Astronauts| Luminosity |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Henrique 'HEN1' Teles |
47 - 34 | +13 | 83.5 | 64.9% | 1.26 |
| Lucas 'steel' Lopes |
40 - 33 | +7 | 66.6 | 77.2% | 1.12 |
| Gabriel 'NEKIZ' Schenato |
38 - 39 | -1 | 74.4 | 70.2% | 1.06 |
| Ricardo 'boltz' Prass |
32 - 33 | -1 | 74.0 | 73.7% | 1.06 |
| Lucas 'LUCAS1' Teles |
36 - 39 | -3 | 73.4 | 66.7% | 0.99 |
| Party Astronauts |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ian 'motm' Hardy |
40 - 40 | +0 | 75.6 | 78.9% | 1.10 |
| Robert 'robby' Brown |
42 - 40 | +2 | 72.6 | 71.9% | 1.10 |
| Brenden 'stellar' McGrath |
31 - 35 | -4 | 72.4 | 70.2% | 0.97 |
| Josh 'PwnAlone' Pigue |
33 - 39 | -6 | 70.6 | 59.6% | 0.92 |
| Ben 'ben1337' Smith |
32 - 40 | -8 | 53.3 | 56.1% | 0.75 |
The final series of the night was a rather clear cut affair, with Singularity defeating Bad News Bears with a pair of 16-10 wins on Overpass and Nuke. 11-4 and 10-5 T-side halves allowed for Singularity to remain in firm control throughout the series, with the entire team contributing on the road to the 2-0 win.
SingularityBad News Bears| Singularity |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cameron 'cam' Kern |
43 - 36 | +7 | 92.6 | 84.6% | 1.38 |
| Ryan 'ryann' Welsh |
42 - 35 | +7 | 91.6 | 76.9% | 1.35 |
| Alan 'Shakezullah' Hardeman |
39 - 21 | +18 | 77.3 | 76.9% | 1.33 |
| Ricky 'floppy' Kemery |
40 - 28 | +12 | 76.7 | 84.6% | 1.31 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
34 - 22 | +12 | 65.0 | 84.6% | 1.23 |
| Bad News Bears |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peter 'ptr' Gurney |
34 - 35 | -1 | 73.7 | 65.4% | 0.99 |
| Mitch 'mitch' Semago |
31 - 36 | -5 | 62.9 | 59.6% | 0.90 |
| Jeff 'RZU' Ngo |
34 - 40 | -6 | 64.5 | 61.5% | 0.85 |
| Austin 'crashies' Roberts |
23 - 42 | -19 | 55.9 | 67.3% | 0.74 |
| Josh 'shinobi' Abastado |
20 - 45 | -25 | 56.6 | 53.8% | 0.61 |
The matchups for day two looks as follows, with times in EDT:
The second round of play is set to take place tomorrow, with eight teams clashing in the upper bracket quarterfinals. The winner of the upper bracket matchups will advance to the Americas Minor, while eight additional teams will fight through the lower bracket in hopes of attaining two final qualification slots.
