M80 smash Liquid to claim Esports World Cup spot
The Esports World Cup 2024 North American Closed Qualifier came to a stunning end last night, with M80 taking the sole spot in the Saudi event after a close win over Legacy and a decisive 2-0 win over Liquid. The qualifier overall served as an extremely impressive debut for Elias "s1n" Stein's new-look M80 after months of stand-ins.
The first series of the last night was surprisingly M80's most difficult of the night, as the Brazilians of Legacy put up tough opposition in the three-map series. The series started with M80 claiming a 13-8 victory on Legacy's map pick of Ancient, before the Brazilians returned the favor with a similar 13-9 win on Vertigo. With the series tied, Mirage was the decider map, with Mario "malbsMd" Samayoa making the map his playground as he led the server to help M80 take Mirage 13-6, posting 99.9 ADR and a 1.61 rating in the process.
M80Legacy| M80 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Mario 'malbsMd' Samayoa |
51 - 43 | +8 | 87.4 | 69.4% | 1.23 |
 Fritz 'slaxz-' Dietrich |
48 - 31 | +17 | 74.6 | 77.4% | 1.20 |
 Ethan 'reck' Serrano |
46 - 41 | +5 | 86.2 | 77.4% | 1.19 |
| Elias 's1n' Stein |
42 - 34 | +8 | 69.2 | 80.6% | 1.09 |
| Michael 'Swisher' Schmid |
36 - 44 | -8 | 71.4 | 69.4% | 0.95 |
| Legacy |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Eduardo 'dumau' Wolkmer |
50 - 40 | +10 | 82.4 | 64.5% | 1.16 |
| Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip |
47 - 43 | +4 | 72.0 | 67.7% | 1.09 |
| Bruno 'b4rtiN' Câmara |
30 - 51 | -21 | 70.1 | 79.0% | 0.87 |
| Bruno 'latto' Rebelatto |
33 - 44 | -11 | 62.8 | 66.1% | 0.81 |
| Gabriel 'NEKIZ' Schenato |
28 - 47 | -19 | 55.6 | 64.5% | 0.71 |
In the finals, while many would expect another close bout between Liquid and M80 it was anything but close as M80 put up a stellar performance against Casper "cadiaN" Møller's squad. Starting on Liquid's pick of Anubis, Liquid would start by winning their opening CT-side pistol and the following two rounds. This early lead was quickly repudiated by M80 as they climbed back to take a 5-4 lead before closing out the half 7-5. After switching sides, M80 would capitalize on winning their opening pistol round by three more rounds thus climbing up to an 11-5 lead. Liquid wouldn't go down quietly as they answered back on their T-side to win six out the next seven rounds to bring the scoreline to 11-12. However, Liquid were unable to force overtime as the team fumbled a post-plant against a half-buy on round 24 to allow M80 to take the map 13-11.
Moving onto Mirage, this is where M80 really shocked Liquid. M80 started on their T-side with malbsMd absolutely dominating as the team only conceded two rounds while completely running over Liquid's defenses while the latter team struggled to get their economy going. Moving into the second half, M80 refused to let off the gas as they won three rounds in a row to take Mirage 13-2 while leaving Liquid dazed and confused about what had just transpired.
The team and the NA scene at-large may be wise to acknowledge malbsMd's 2.56 rating on the map and avoid taking the Guatemalan there in future. With this win, M80 have joined Complexity in Saudi Arabia and will look to impress with their new roster at the $1m event.
LiquidM80| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
30 - 28 | +2 | 86.4 | 74.4% | 1.02 |
 Casper 'cadiaN' Møller |
25 - 26 | -1 | 68.3 | 74.4% | 0.96 |
| Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
25 - 28 | -3 | 73.6 | 61.5% | 0.91 |
| Felipe 'skullz' Medeiros |
23 - 29 | -6 | 67.2 | 69.2% | 0.83 |
 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis |
21 - 29 | -8 | 65.6 | 64.1% | 0.72 |
| M80 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mario 'malbsMd' Samayoa |
38 - 25 | +13 | 106.8 | 79.5% | 1.59 |
| Michael 'Swisher' Schmid |
28 - 27 | +1 | 81.1 | 87.2% | 1.27 |
| Elias 's1n' Stein |
29 - 24 | +5 | 82.6 | 71.8% | 1.23 |
| Fritz 'slaxz-' Dietrich |
23 - 21 | +2 | 59.9 | 69.2% | 1.07 |
| Ethan 'reck' Serrano |
22 - 27 | -5 | 64.9 | 74.4% | 0.97 |
The finalized team list for Esports World Cup 2024 is now:
• 
Spirit
• 
NAVI
• FaZe
• Complexity
• FURIA
• G2
• Vitality
• MOUZ
• Virtus.pro
• Sashi
• 
M80
• MIBR
• 
FlyQuest
• 
The MongolZ
• 
JiJieHao
