RBG, Rebirth advance to IEM New York Closed Qualifier
The first IEM New York qualifier has concluded, seeing RBG and Rebirth advance to the closed stage of the event with wins over Mike Tysons and Eros, respectively.
The Canadian Advanced squad were the first to earn their spot in the Closed Qualifier, making short work of Mike Tysons in a two-map series. It seemed as if RBG would face some contention when Mirage got underway, with Mike Tysons putting up a solid effort on the offense as they led 5-2 and 7-4 at separate points. However, the latter portion of the first half went firmly in the favor of Austin "gmanchew" Veira's side, allowing them to edge out ahead by one round at the break.
A pistol victory for Mike Tysons quickly tied the game in the second half, but a force-buy response from RBG swung momentum back in the favor of the Canadian roster. From there, they remained in firm control, giving up only one additional round towards the end of the map before securing a 16-9 victory.
Inferno was a much more clear-cut affair as Mike Tysons found themselves battered on the defense. They managed two rounds to kick off the map, but only picked up one additional one as RBG ran rampant on the T-side to swiftly close out the map 16-3.
Eros, who had just signed Northern Forces earlier in the day, kicked off their series against Rebirth on their pick of Inferno, opening the map with two rounds. However, a stalwart defense from Rebirth resulted in a one-sided scoreline at halftime, with the MDL side leading 10-5 as the sides swapped over. The team did not waste much time before closing out the map, conceding just three rounds before moving the series on to their pick of Mirage with a 16-8 scoreline.
Rebirth initially seemed to be in control of their own map pick, with Eros only managing a string of rounds in the middle of the first half as Sebastian "retchy" Tropiano and company edged out a one-round lead at halftime. However, a stellar showing from Nicholas "hate" Young propelled Eros to a comeback, as athe player posted 35 frags and averaged 134 damage per round to help his side take the map 16-12.
Things looked shaky on Train for Rebirth as Eros were in control early on, leading 7-1 on the T-side. However, the MDL side rallied back to a 6-9 scoreline in the latter portion of the first half, and remained the dominant roster once they swapped to the offense as they only gave up three rounds en route to a 16-12 finish.
The current team list for the IEM New York Closed Qualifier is:
Ze Pug Godz | New England Whalers |
Yeah | oNe |
RBG | Rebirth |
Qualifier 2 | Qualifier 2 |
The second open qualifier is scheduled to kick off later today at 6 PM EDT. As always, dates and signup links for upcoming cups and qualifiers can be found on the Dust2.us Calendar.