Brazil survives NA Open Qualifier; Another mixteam joins Americas RMR CQ

With Liquid and NRG already qualified, the Americas RMR North America Open Qualifier #2 was expected to be more balanced, with more uncertainty surrounding which four teams would join the Americas RMR Closed Qualifier. The second OQ delivered a very exciting quartet of qualification series, as LOS, Rocket, FLUFFY AIMERS, and Cloud 10 advanced to the next stage.

This is huge news for Brazilian fans as not only LOS were able to survive WICKED, but Brazilian FLUFFY AIMERS player Israel "LEARSI" Vargas is also advancing. As for North American fans, they can be happy to see the mixteam of Cloud 10 reaching the CQ and Rocket following suit with very convincing performances.

The last night of the #2 Open Qualifier started with a Bo1 to see who would advance to the Bo3 phase. LOS, FLUFFY AIMERS, Rocket, Regain, and Cloud 10 made quick work of their opponents, not allowing more than five rounds. WICKED, The Nomads and Bad News Bricks suffered to overcome the round of 16 but managed to ultimately be in the crucial quarterfinal Bo3 series.

Contrary to what happened in the first Open Qualifier, this edition had three qualification Bo3s feature all three maps, once again proving Liquid and NRG are in a different league. The only series that didn't go the full length was Rocket vs. The Nomads but even that match had two close maps, with Rocket taking them 13-8 and 13-9.

LOS beat WICKED 13-3 on the first map, but the NA squad replied with a 19-17 win, to then lose the decider 13-9. FLUFFY AIMERS started their series against Bad News Bricks with a 13-10 loss but followed it up with a 13-2 and a 13-11 win. Finally, in the most balanced series of them all, Cloud 10 lost 13-11 to Regain to start the series but came back with 16-14 and 13-7 wins.

In the seeding phase, Rocket dismantled LOS 13-4, while Cloud 10 continued to surprise everyone, beating FLUFFY AIMERS 13-11 but would lose in the grand final 13-7 to Rocket. With these results, the list of teams in the Closed Qualifier is decided, as LOS, Rocket, FA, and Cloud 10 join Liquid, NRG, my life be like and vagrants in the next stage. The eight teams will meet Complexity, M80, Nouns, Wildcard, Badass, BOSS, Party Astronauts, and Carpe Diem in the Closed Qualifier.

With the open qualifiers concluded, the Closed Qualifier is set to start tonight at 09:00PM with the following teams: