Riot Squad and Dogs of War top second WESG qualifiers
The second American and Canadian WESG open qualifiers have come a close, with Riot Squad and a Dogs of War mix joining the list of teams in the Closed Qualifier.
The first two rounds of the American qualifier went as expected, with a number of MDL and EPL squads advancing without much trouble. Continuing on, the first upsets began to roll in as Divine sent ATK into the lower bracket with a 16-8 win, while eUnited narrowly took a 16-14 win over Ascent.
In the upper bracket semi-finals, Riot Squad surprised with a 16-14 win over Envy while eUnited made quick work of Divine with a 16-9 victory.
In the winners' final, Riot Squad managed to claim another close win over an EPL squad as they bested eUnited 16-14 to make their way into the finals.
In the lower bracket, a number of teams started to drop out with Singularity taking down ATK 16-13 on Train before picking up a forfeit win over Ascent. Their run came to an end as Envy bested them with a 16-12 victory on Dust2.
The remainder of the lower bracket saw Divine claim another scalp as they found a 22-18 overtime win over Swole Patrol before they were eliminated by Envy.
In the loser's final, eUnited dominated Envy, securing a 10-5 CT-side on Nuke, before taking the map 16-11.
In the finals, eUnited looked keen to take revenge on Riot Squad as they claimed a decisive 16-6 victory on Overpass. However, Riot Squad were quick to answer back as Jonathan "Jonji" Carey led the way for his team to secure a 16-4 win on Inferno.
With the series 2-1 in Riot Squad's favor, they continued to put up a strong performance, claiming an 11-4 half with a strong CT-side. After switching sides, eUnited kept things competitive but they never managed to take the lead as Riot Squad claimed the map 16-11.
With the second qualifier wrapped, the results look as follows:
1st - 
Riot Squad (ptr, mitch, crashies, FNS, Jonji) - Closed Qualifier
2nd - eUnited (Cooper-, MarKE, food, vanity, freakazoid) - 12 points
3rd - Envy (Nifty, s0m, ANDROID, FugLy, ryann) - 6 points
4th - Divine (Hunter, zander, bul, roca, Junior) - 3 points
5th - Singularity (dapr, Relyks, seb, dazzLe, moose) - 1 point
6th - Swole Patrol (swag, neptune, kaboose, oderus, wrath) - 1 point
As a result, the complete list of teams for the Closed Qualifier looks as follows:
| Ben's Anime Team |
Riot Squad |
| ATK |
eUnited |
| Ascent |
Envy |
Moving onto the Canadian qualifier, notable results did not come until the semi-finals where Dogs of War made quick work of Nobu with a 16-4 win while surprisingly Durham Lords took down Oceanus 16-11. In the winners' final, Dogs of War continued their strong performance as they smashed Durham Lords 16-8.
In the lower bracket, after Oceanus picked up a 16-4 win against Dans ta yeule, they exited the qualifier after being bested by October's Very Own. The lower bracket was rounded out by October's Very Own besting Durham Lords 16-12.
In the finals, Dogs of War crushed October's Very Own on Train, winning their T-side 10-5 before putting up a perfect CT-side to claim the map 16-5.
Moving onto Dust2, October's Very Own managed to get back into the series as they found an 8-7 CT-side before narrowly winning their T-side to take the map 16-13.
After this, Dogs of War started off Inferno with a strong T-side, winning the half 10-5. After switching sides, October's Very Own won six out of the first seven rounds in a row to take the lead for the first time in the half. However, after this they seemingly began to run out of steam as Dogs of War outpaced them to take the map 16-13.
With the second Canadian qualifier wrapped, the results look as follows:
1st - 
Dogs of War (theguy, daf, Temperature, Florgy, stealthy) - Closed Qualifier
2nd - October's Very Own (W0rstplayer, idk anymore, ARZEEEE, jexxey, Penny) - 12 points
3rd - Durham Lords (Jacky, Bubby, DankDynasty, SNOOZER314, eschew) - 6 points
4th - Oceanus (KOLER, Melio, J0LZ, tENSKI, KmZ) - 3 points
5th - Dans ta yeule (YuZ, 1kdz, sup3rant, dav0ke, Yonj) - 1 point
6th - The Gaming Stadium (leak1, Jerk, emins, mxj, Freinzy) - 1 point
As a result, the complete list of teams for the Canadian Closed Qualifier looks as follows:
| Dogs of War |
LiViD |
| October's Very Own |
Oceanus |
| Durham Lords |
Able |
Both regions closed qualifiers are set to begin on November 3rd, with one team from each region qualifying to a regional LAN final which will determine which team will advance to represent North America in WESG 2019.
