TeamOne, Bravado through to Americas Minor

The final two teams are now confirmed at the Americas Minor, with TeamOne and Bravado topping the lower bracket of the North America closed qualifier.

After NRG, eUnited, FURIA, and Envy punched their tickets through the upper bracket on Wednesday, twelve teams remained battling through the lower bracket to secure the last two slots at the Minor.

TeamOne kicked off their run against Old Guys Club. In that match, Sean "⁠seang@res⁠" Gares' men were up 1-0 in the series and had a 15-13 lead on Cache, but were unable to field a fifth as Mike "⁠shroud⁠" Grzesiek had other obligations and they had to forfeit the match to the Brazilians.

The Brazilians were then matched up against Rogue, where they kicked off a contested series on their map pick, Inferno, before closing things out in the second half of Train to meet Swole Patrol in the lower bracket semi-final.

Bravado are one of the two teams to qualify through the lower bracket

Bruno "⁠BIT⁠" Fukuda Lima and his men kicked off the series against Ryan "⁠freakazoid⁠" Abadir & co. in dominating fashion, taking control of both first halves' across Inferno and Train with an 11-4 scoreline, before closing both games 16-9 and 16-11, respectively, earning them a spot in the Americas Minor.

The next team in line to secure their spot at the Minor were the South Africans of Bravado. Aran "⁠Sonic⁠" Groesbeek and his team began their lower bracket run against Luminosity, who saw Henrique "⁠HEN1⁠" Teles return to the lineup, but Lucas "⁠LUCAS1⁠" Teles' twin was not enough to spark life back into the team, as the Brazilians fell short, 16-12, on Dust2 and Mirage.

Singularity was the South Africans' next opponent, where a highly-contested battle across two maps saw Bravado reach the lower bracket semi-final. After surprisingly defeating Ghost in two maps, Test Takers went up against the South Africans, who cruised through the opener on Inferno with a 16-1 map victory. The North Americans turned things around on Dust2, forcing the decider, Train, but Bravado fired on all cylinders to close out the series 2-1 and stamp their place at the Americas Minor.

All eight teams are now confirmed at the Americas Minor in Katowice, Poland, which is slated to run on January 22-26 with $50,000 in prizes and two slots at the Katowice Major on the line.

The complete eight-team list competing at the Minor is:

NRG
eUnited
INTZ
TeamOne Envy
FURIA
Imperial
Bravado Ryan 'freakazoid' Abadir Age: 26 Team: Swole Patrol Rating 1.0: 1.01 Maps played: 695 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.70 Bravado #28 Dimitri 'Detrony' HadjipaschaliRuan 'ELUSIVE' van WykAran 'Sonic' GroesbeekRhys 'Fadey' ArmstrongJohnny 'JT' Theodosiou Imperial #96 Caio 'zqkS' FonsecaGustavo 'SHOOWTiME' GonçalvesThiago 'tifa' FrançaDenis 'dzt' FischerBruno 'shz' Martinelli Old Guys Club #88 Jordan 'n0thing' GilbertSean 'seang@res' GaresYazan 'clowN' AmmariSamuel 'SileNt' PortilloSam 's0m' Oh Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek Age: 20 Team: Bravado Rating 1.0: 1.19 Maps played: 333 KPR: 0.80 DPR: 0.62 eUnited #33 Pujan 'FNS' MehtaSkyler 'Relyks' WeaverMichael 'dapr' GulinoKaleb 'moose' JayneAustin 'Cooper' Abadir Rogue #39 Spencer 'Hiko' MartinMathias 'MSL' LauridsenRicardo 'Rickeh' MulhollandHunter 'SicK' MimsDaniel 'vice' Kim Envy #54 Stephen 'reltuC' CutlerJosh 'jdm64' MarzanoNoah 'Nifty' FrancisTaylor 'Drone' JohnsonMatt 'Pollo' Wilson Bruno 'BIT' Fukuda Lima Age: 28 Team: TeamOne Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 316 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.65 TeamOne #62 Bruno 'BIT' Fukuda LimaPedro 'Maluk3' CamposNicolas 'NikoM' MiozziVictor 'iDk' TorracaAlencar 'trk' Rossato Luminosity #21 Lucas 'steel' LopesHenrique 'HEN1' TelesLucas 'LUCAS1' TelesRicardo 'boltz' PrassGabriel 'NEKIZ' Schenato Singularity #40 Victor 'food' WongRyan 'ryann' WelshAnthony 'vanity' MalaspinaCameron 'cam' KernJosh 'oSee' Ohm FURIA #68 Andrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosVinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoKaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoRinaldo 'ableJ' Moda Junior Henrique 'HEN1' Teles Age: 23 Team: Luminosity Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 630 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.58 Lucas 'LUCAS1' Teles Age: 23 Team: Luminosity Rating 1.0: 0.99 Maps played: 629 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.67 Swole Patrol #42 Braxton 'swag' PierceRyan 'freakazoid' AbadirEdgar 'MarKE' MaldonadoJordan 'Zellsis' MontemurroBrandon 'Ace' Winn INTZ #37 Vito 'kNgV-' GiuseppeAlexandre 'xand' ZiziJoão 'felps' VasconcellosMarcelo 'chelo' CespedesJoão 'horvy' Horvath Test Takers #95 Peter 'ptr' GurneyJosh 'shinobi' AbastadoMitch 'mitch' SemagoJeff 'RZU' NgoTyson 'TenZ' Ngo Ghost #18 Joshua 'steel' NissanKenneth 'koosta' SuenYassine 'Subroza' TaoufikMatthew 'WARDELL' YuJason 'neptune' Tran Sean 'seang@res' Gares Age: 30 Team: Old Guys Club Rating 1.0: 0.88 Maps played: 692 KPR: 0.59 DPR: 0.68 NRG #8 Damian 'daps' SteeleJacob 'FugLy' MedinaVincent 'Brehze' CayonteEthan 'Ethan' ArnoldTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov Mike 'shroud' Grzesiek Age: 24 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 676 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.65