Wildcard complete IEM Chengdu Closed Qualifier list, Nouns and NRG miss out
Earlier today, the second open qualifier for IEM Chengdu played out, with many of NA's finest in competition. The likes of NRG, Badass, Wildcard, Might, Party Astronauts, Carpe Diem, and Nouns squared up to see who would join M80, Liquid, and BOSS in the Closed Qualifier. Many teams enter. Only one leaves.
Nouns made it through to the grand final without too much of a sweat, defeating Zomblers and Rocket on the way. The Partynauts fell early to MIGHT, who themselves were found in the dirt not much longer after facing Wildcard. NRG claimed a quarter-final victory over Badass, revenge for the previous open qualifier, but were utterly outclassed against Wildcard in the semis, losing 13-4. This set up a Wildcard vs Nouns grand final for the final slot.
On Wildcard's pick of Overpass, things looked to go well for the Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz led team at first. A solid five T-side rounds teed them up well for their defense, but Nouns simply dominated. It was six for two in the Nouns' favor to steal Wildcard's pick 13-7.
Nouns looked to close it out in two with their pick of Nuke, but Wildcard showed off that their defense wouldn't be so easily run over on map two. Fifteen kills from Keller "SLIGHT" Nilan on the CT-side helped propel Wildcard to an enormous 9-3 lead which the team closed out on T-side in flawless fashion, stunning Nouns with a 13-3 robbery.
Map three to decide it all, so what better battle ground than Inferno? Wildcard's T-side started out fiery, taking four unanswered, but Nouns struck back with three of their own. That wasn't the end of the road though as Wildcard took four of the remaining five rounds, setting up an 8-4 lead before transitioning to the defense. Two strong rounds from the pistol and conversion saw Wildcard reach double digits. In Nouns' last breaths, they took three to half the deficit but it simply was not enough as Gage "Infinite" Green stunned with nearly 130 ADR to finish out the map, the series, and the qualifier.
WildcardNouns| Wildcard |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Gage 'Infinite' Green |
53 - 36 | +17 | 103.4 | 80.4% | 1.47 |
 Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek |
52 - 37 | +15 | 83.3 | 78.6% | 1.31 |
| Keller 'SLIGHT' Nilan |
39 - 33 | +6 | 69.0 | 85.7% | 1.09 |
| Josh 'JBa' Barutt |
32 - 32 | +0 | 63.6 | 83.9% | 1.08 |
 Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz |
31 - 36 | -5 | 66.6 | 80.4% | 1.03 |
| Nouns |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Christopher 'cJ dA K1nG' Jones |
39 - 43 | -4 | 82.2 | 66.1% | 1.00 |
| Jeorge 'Jeorge' Endicott |
34 - 41 | -7 | 70.1 | 71.4% | 0.90 |
| Carson 'nosraC' O'Reilly |
31 - 44 | -13 | 68.8 | 66.1% | 0.86 |
 Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado |
37 - 40 | -3 | 59.4 | 69.6% | 0.86 |
| Paytyn 'junior' Johnson |
28 - 39 | -11 | 59.5 | 71.4% | 0.78 |
Wildcard join Liquid, M80, and BOSS in the hunt for the final North American IEM Chengdu slot. The closed qualifier begins tonight, January 19th.
