ESL announce ESL One Rio Minor Closed Qualifier invites; Chaos and Triumph lose coaches
With the ESL One Rio 2020 Major qualification circuit starting today, ESL have announced the eight teams invited to the Americas Minor North America Closed Qualifier which is set to take place on March 6th.
Leading the list of invited teams is Cloud9, with the American-South African team currently sitting at 17th on HLTV's world rankings thanks in part to their attendance at DreamHack Open Leipzig last week.
Trailing right behind them are FURIA, who are heavy favorites after finishing in second place at the previous two Americas Minors.
Gen.G have also received an invite based on ESL's world rankings, with the team having a lot to prove after moving Hansel "BnTeT" Ferdinand to North America.
Coming in close behind them are eUnited, who have recently been playing with Gage "Infinite" Green in place of Kaleb "moose" Jayne.
Riot Squad have also been invited, though they currently have no fifth after parting ways with Pujan "FNS" Mehta.
As for Chaos, due to not being able to use Josh "steel" Nissan because of his match-fixing ban, the team have brought in Swole Patrol player Jake "kaboose" McDonald for the qualifier. The team are on the lookout for a new coach as Alan "Shakezullah" Hardeman left Chaos' ESEA roster last night, with a source from the team telling Dust2.us that Shakezullah wants to transition back into a player role.
Fellow invitee Triumph have also seem to have lost their coach as Matthew "mCe" Elmore left the team's ESEA roster last night.
Finally, New Identity's participation in the qualifier is currently up in the air as following their release from Singularity it has yet to be confirmed whether they will be staying together long-term.
As such, the complete list of teams for the closed qualifier for the moment is:
 Cloud9 |
 FURIA |
| eUnited |
Gen.G |
| Riot Squad |
Chaos |
| New Identity |
Triumph |
Eight more teams will be joing the above eight via the upcoming open qualifiers. The first open qualifier is set to begin in a little under an hour. Registration is now closed, but if you want to follow the action, the bracket will be published here. As always, dates and signup links for upcoming qualifiers can be found on the Dust2.us Calendar.
