EnVyUs and OpTic secure IEM OAKLAND 2017 qualifier spots

The IEM OAKLAND 2017 is ready to start now after the ending of all Europe and North America qualifiers, which has brought us one winner from each region to the main event in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event.

The IEM Oakland closed qualifier for European teams started well for the French sides, as EnVyUs was able to 2-0 fnatic and move on the semi-final, while LDLC pulled off an upset againstNatus Vincere in three maps, winning on Mirage and Inferno after losing their map pick, Overpass, 16-14.

Vincent “Happy” Schopenhauer and co. then went on to beatNorth, with convincing wins on Nuke and Cobblestone—two maps North is usually strong on—getting EnVyUs the 2-1 and a place in the finals. On the other side of the bracket, Kévin“Ex6TenZ” Droolans’s side started off with 10 Terrorist rounds on Nuke, which allowed them to close out the first map againstmousesports easily. LDLC wasn’t able to do much on the next two, though, picking up a total of just seven rounds as Martin“STYKO” Styk and co. bounced back to win 2-1.

EnVyUs and mousesports faced off in the final of the qualifier, with Inferno ending up as the first map. The French side lost the pistol round but slowly turned the situation around, winning the first gun round and resetting the economy of Chris “chrisJ”de Jong’s team shortly after. A 9-6 lead after EnVyUs’ Terrorist half was extended with a CT pistol win and the map was ended shortly, with the score being 16-7 in favor of the Frenchmen.

mousesports had a dominant CT side on the second map, Train, with Robin “ropz” Kool being the key man in their 12-round half. After the switch, the European mixture was able to get the first two as well, but Alexandre “xms” Forté didn’t allow them to close the map out quickly, getting three with the CZ-75 before closing out the round with a picked up AK47. That started EnVyUs’ comeback, which also featured a crazy 1v2 ninja defuse by Happy that made it 14-11.

The score was shortly tied at 14-14, with a forcebuy execute towards A shut-down and a B site retake in the last two rounds ensuring EnVyUs win the series in two and attend IEM Oakland 2017 in November.

OpTic started their qualification by taking down Joshua “steel”Nissan’s Torqued 2-0, while NRG and Renegades secured the same scoreline wins over Misfits and Luminosity, respectively. The only team that put up a fight in the first round was the Swedish Tempo Storm lineup, that took Cache off of CLG, but fell 2-1 in the end.

Adam “friberg” Friberg’s team then met NRG, with the North American side surprising them on the first map, Nuke, and taking the 16-9 win—with Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte’s 32-13 K-D surely hepling the matter. Aleksi “allu” Jalli stepped on map 2, Overpass, as OpTic started their comeback with a 16-8 win, finishing off the series with a 16-10 on Cache.

In the other semi, Renegades blew away CLG on Cobblestone, dropping only one round, and secured the final with a confident 16-10 on Train. Ricardo “Rickeh” Mulholland was the only one delivering for his side in the 2-0 defeat, finishing the series with a 1.16 rating, while the second best player, Stephen “reltuC”Cutler, had 0.67.

Renegades picked Cache to start off the final series, but it wasOpTic who took the early lead, going six rounds to none at the start of the map. The Australians then tied together four of their own, but only finished their CT half with five and their chances to turn it around were looking slim.

However, thanks to an inspired performance by Keith “NAF”Markovic against his former organization, Renegades mirroredOpTic’s T side start, picking up the first five rounds. After conceding two, Renegades were able to bounce back and close out the game 16-14 with the help of the economy control.

Justin “jks” Savage and co. had another tough start to the second map, Overpass, where allu was once again on point, finishing the CT half with a slim, 8-7 lead. Unlike on the first map, Renegades didn’t get the second pistol and the much needed good start to the half and ended up losing Overpass 16-10.

Moving on to Train, we once again saw the Terrorist sides doing work, as Renegades had a great start, being 8-1 up and finishing the half with 10 rounds. However, OpTic was able to turn it around, winning the crucial rounds to make their comeback as easy as possible. In the end, the European side tied it up 16-11 to get the 2-1 victory and a slot at IEM Oakland 2017.

The tournament, which will be held on November 16-19 and will feature a $300,000 prize pool, will have the following teams in attendance: