Envy and Triumph complete ESL One Rio Americas Minor team list
With the final day of the ESL One Rio Closed Qualifier in the books, we now know that Triumph and Envy will be heading to Brazil to join the upper bracket champions from day one of the Closed Qualifier to fight for a place in the New Challengers stage of the Rio Major.
The Cinderella run for the Orgless squad has come to an end one series short of a berth at the Minor. It was a hard fought series, but it was inevitably Triumph that would do exactly as their name suggests, reverse-sweeping the Orgless roster that will now head into their FLASHPOINT season with no distractions from other events.
When things started out on Nuke, it looked like Orgless were on upset alert, as they went into the half down 6-9. It took Gage "Infinite" Green topping the scoreboard with 23 kills and Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker posting a server-best 1.42 rating to help Orgless close out the map with a 10-2 second half effort on T-side. Triumph just had no answer for their takes on the lower bombsite and Orgless exploited it mercilessly.
Triumph responded on Dust2 however, where Logan "Voltage" Long absolutely terrorized Orgless with the AWP. 13 of his 21 kills came with the sniper rifle, supported by another server-leading 22 kills from Michael "Grim" Wince. Pujan "FNS" Mehta also had 22 for Orgless in the map loss, where he and his teammates allowed Triumph to have a T-side that was just as dominant as their own on Nuke, an 11-2 collapse conceded on defense by the Canadian-American roster.
Like any close series, it was great to see the decider map be as closely contested as it was. This one needed all thirty rounds to crown a winner on Inferno, thanks largely in part to Grim and Alan "Shakezullah" Hardeman putting up 20 kills apiece. The second half featured just three eco and half buy rounds for Orgless as they brought things back from a 13-9 deficit all the way to 15-14 , but when it came down to the wire, Triumph managed just one round more than Orgless did on the CT-side, as they took round thirty and the series to secure their berth in Brazil.
TriumphOrgless| Triumph |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Michael 'Grim' Wince |
64 - 51 | +13 | 82.4 | 72.9% | 1.25 |
| Logan 'Voltage' Long |
47 - 33 | +14 | 58.0 | 78.8% | 1.15 |
| Alan 'Shakezullah' Hardeman |
49 - 58 | -9 | 65.6 | 69.4% | 0.91 |
| Gabe 'Spongey' Greiner |
48 - 54 | -6 | 62.4 | 67.1% | 0.90 |
| Peter 'Asuna' Mazuryk |
46 - 59 | -13 | 62.6 | 69.4% | 0.89 |
| Orgless |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Matthew 'WARDELL' Yu |
53 - 39 | +14 | 57.2 | 75.3% | 1.10 |
| Gage 'Infinite' Green |
62 - 57 | +5 | 80.8 | 72.9% | 1.08 |
| Jaccob 'yay' Whiteaker |
52 - 51 | +1 | 68.0 | 77.6% | 1.08 |
| Pujan 'FNS' Mehta |
49 - 50 | -1 | 66.1 | 74.1% | 1.06 |
| Yassine 'Subroza' Taoufik |
39 - 57 | -18 | 60.0 | 65.9% | 0.83 |
In the final series of the Closed Qualifier, it was Envy who wrapped things up in much cleaner fashion than they did in their marathon series against Chaos on day two. The new NA/EU hybrid roster successfully managed to deny the Brazilians from Yeah a trip home to compete in Rio de Janeiro with a 2-0 sweep, with both maps secured in regulation.
On map one, Envy were able to secure an early series lead, stealing away the Brazilian's map pick of Inferno with a dominant CT-side in the first half, which had them leading 12-3 at the break. But then Yeah mounted something of a comeback, bringing things all the way from Envy's first match point at 15-3 to 15-11 before Envy brought things over the finish line. Michał "MICHU" Müller led the way with 24 kills, while Ryan "ryann" Welsh was the best rated at 1.29.
Overpass was a much closer contest, Envy only managed a slight 8-7 lead on the T-side of their pick. Yeah strung together five rounds in a row to bring things from a 7-2 deficit to 7-7, ensuring a respectable first half effort that kept them in the game. Eventually Envy's CT-side won out, securing the series with an unexpected connector stack on a half buy in round 28 that decimated Yeah and left Rodrigo "RCF" Figueiredo with an impossible clutch. Kaleb "moose" Jayne was the difference maker for Envy on Overpass, contributing 27 kills to lead the server in the series clinching effort. Victor "iDk" Torraca had 23 for Yeah in the loss.
YeahEnvy| Yeah |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Eduardo 'dumau' Wolkmer |
39 - 37 | +2 | 79.8 | 67.3% | 1.10 |
| Rodrigo 'RCF' Figueiredo |
37 - 38 | -1 | 74.3 | 63.6% | 1.01 |
| Arthur 'f4stzin' Schmitt |
35 - 40 | -5 | 71.9 | 63.6% | 0.91 |
| Victor 'iDk' Torraca |
32 - 40 | -8 | 71.1 | 56.4% | 0.89 |
| Alef 'tatazin' Pereira |
28 - 37 | -9 | 46.9 | 61.8% | 0.71 |
| Envy |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Buğra 'Calyx' Arkın |
43 - 33 | +10 | 82.9 | 72.7% | 1.23 |
| Ryan 'ryann' Welsh |
40 - 34 | +6 | 71.2 | 74.5% | 1.14 |
| Kaleb 'moose' Jayne |
40 - 33 | +7 | 76.1 | 63.6% | 1.13 |
 Michał 'MICHU' Müller |
37 - 37 | +0 | 76.8 | 69.1% | 1.04 |
| Noah 'Nifty' Francis |
31 - 34 | -3 | 67.6 | 67.3% | 0.97 |
With today's results, the finalized list of attendees for the Americas Minor will be:
| Furia |
Triumph |
| Bad News Bears |
 Envy |
| Gen.G |
Cloud 9 |
| BOOM (via SA Qualifier) |
RED Canids (via SA Qualifier) |
The Americas Minor of the ESL One Rio de Janeiro Major is currently scheduled to take place from April 26th to May 2nd on LAN in Brazil.
No official announcement has been made regarding contigency plans for dealing with the COVID-19 novel coronavirus outbreak, but fans planning on attending any part of the main event in Brazil should be mindful of the potential for restrictions to be implemented either by the Brazilian government, by the tournament organizers, or by venue itself.
