posted by Brasozial,
The Swedish battle in Europe
The last two teams to qualify for the EU Qualifier were MangoBay* with Armand 'bOne7' Pittner and The Final Tribe. After switching from carry to position five, Adrian 'Era' Kryeziu will meet his former team in the first round of the group stage: The Final Tribe will play against their Swedish rival Alliance.
They're both in the same group with Team Secret and Madjor Atendari. The Bulgarian team surprisingly beat Final Tribe and Ionut 'ArisE' Turtoi's team in the first Open Qualifer.
In Group B Team Liquid will play against MangoBay* while Ninjas in Pyjamas and Peter 'ppd' Dager will face Vega Squadron (EU) with the Greek duo Omar 'Madara' Dabachach and Verros 'Maybe Next Time' Apostolos.
Raven against his old team
Like Europe, Southeast Asia is still in the group stage of their qualifier. In Group A TNC Predator will meet Lotac in the first match of the group stage. This means that Raven, who joined Chong Xin 'Ohaiyo' Khoo, will face his former team. Meanwhile Execration will play against Team Amplfy.
In Group B Fnatic's new lineup will play against Sterling Global Dragons and Mineski will take on Tigers with David 'Moonmeander' Tan and Theeban '1437' Siva.
The new NA rivalry: Evil Geniuses against Forward Gaming
North America is the third of the three regions where we still have to wait for the regional qualifier to start. In Group A it's Evil Geniuses against Black Sheep on day one, while beastcoast has a tougher opponent.
Braxton 'Brax' Paulson and Michael 'ixmike88' Ghannam will play against J.Storm with David 'Moo' Hull and Sang-Don 'FoREv' Lee.
In Group B Roman 'Resolut1on' Fominok and co. will play their first game under the banner of Forward Gaming against Skr skr. Jacky 'EternaLEnVy' Mao's first match on position five for compLexity Gaming will be against the Mexicans of Team Xolotl.
PSG.LGD and VG are qualified for the Major
In China the group stage is already over and the first matches in the playoffs have been played. EHOME, Royal Never Give Up and Zhi Cheng 'LaNm' Zhang's DeathBringer Gaming lost their games in the Lower Bracket and can only compete in the Major if they win the first Minor.
Top favourite PSG.LGD will play against Vici Gaming in the Upper Bracket. This means LGD and VG are already qualified for the first Major since they are in the top three. The last spot will be decided between Team Aster and Team Serenity.
Can Natus Vincere fight back without Dendi?
The group stage is done in the CIS qualifier. Virtus.pro and Winstrike both won their games in their group.
Natus Vincere finished third in Group B and will play against AS Monaco Gambit with Ivan 'Vanskor' Skorokhod and Vasily 'Afterlife' Shishkin in their first decider game in the Lower Bracket.
paiN against paiN?
The last qualifier is the South American one where the two top favourites already won their group. If test 123 and paiN Gaming* win their first game in the Upper Bracket, they'll play against each other to reach the top three.
However, this won't be enough to qualify for the Major. While China, Europe and North America were granted three Major slots, SEA, CIS and South America only send two teams to the Major.
The paiN squads have to reach the Grand Final of their qualifier to get a Major ticket. Otherwise they have to take the long way over the Minor qualifier and win that Minor.
Which teams will qualify for the first Major?
Photo credit: Valve
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