ATK qualify for iBUYPOWER Mythic Masters over Strife
The open qualifier for iBUYPOWER Mythic Masters played out earlier in the week, ultimately seeing South African-American side ATK claim the sole spot in the main event after successfully traversing the bracket.
After an uneventful first round, the second round of play saw goomba stomp, a Premier mix of ONET4P and Limitless players, easily dispatch Turkish side YeniCherry.
In the third round, Danny "cxzi" Strzelczyk and Triumph needed overtime to overcome Brazen, DETONATE defeated Soham "valens" Chowdhury's PNEUMA, and goomba stomp claimed another easy win over X13.
The fourth round saw Advanced side Russian Street Party stun Triumph in a close 16-13 match on Inferno, and meanwhile goomba stomp sent ChocoCheck packing as well. ATK just barely edged out Northern Forces, and Strife made easy work of DETONATE.
Round five saw the entrance of best-of-threes, and Strife took a comprehensive 2-0 victory over the upstarts of Russian Street Party. On the other side of the bracket, it took ATK a bit more effort to dispatch of the goomba stomp mix, but they eventually did so in 2-0 fashion as well.
Eager to punch their ticket to the main event, ATK kept the 2-0 streak going in the grand final, with solid performances from both Ian "motm" Hardy and new addition McKinley "Cyrix" Hollison helping to put their squad over the top of Bobby "stamina" Eitrem's men.
The top eight teams of the iBUYPOWER Mythic Masters qualifier were:
1. 
ATK (MisteM, Fadey, mango, motm, Cyrix, Coach: sprayxd) - Main event
2. 
Strife (SATURN, SLIGHT, AAustiN, J0LZ, stamina, Coach: mindtr6cks)
3-4. Russian Street Party (Lylo, hades, TRGR, mdn, arya)
3-4. goomba stomp (walker, Consti, Cryptic, brett, Fr3nk1e)
5-8. Triumph (jeorgesnorts, cxzi, viz, RZU, xCeeD, Coach: becker)
5-8. DETONATE (Swahn, Delta9, Ghostii, Sutter, silas, Coach: ioRascal)
5-8. ChocoCheck (nosraC, XotiC, JazzPimp, cJ, CLASIA)
5-8. Northern Forces (Wilky, sam, JAM, EllisoN, D4rtyMontana, Coach: Anythingpos)
The full bracket is available here.
iBUYPOWER Mythic Masters, with $50,000 in prizes, will kick off later today at 5PM EST and carry on throughout the weekend. The eight teams have been drawn into the following two GSL groups, which will play out in BO3 fashion:
| Group A | Group B |
| Party Astronauts |
 Extra Salt |
| RBG |
 oNe |
| MIBR |
Bad News Bears |
| Kings of Content |
ATK |
The initial matches of Group A will be played out today, with Group B to follow tomorrow. Of particular note is the rosters for Kings of Content, where inactive Evil Geniuses member Tarik "tarik" Celik will be joined by a quartet of former teammates in the forms of Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte, William "RUSH" Wierzba, Jake "Stewie2K" Yip, and Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo.
Since the conclusion of PGL Major Stockholm, the Brazilian in-game leader and AWPer has been reported to be looking to build a new roster with former teammate Marcelo "coldzera" David, and both he and Stewie2K are reportedly evaluating options outside of Liquid.
