Bravado and iNTACT through to Americas Minor closed qualifier
The second day of the third open qualifier for the Americas Minor has wrapped up, with the South African powerhouse Bravado and iNTACT moving on to the Minor closed qualifier.
The quarterfinals, which were played in best-of-one matches, primarily featured blowouts, with iNTACT crushing Hot Ass 16-4 on Inferno and Bravado making quick work of lightwork on Inferno 16-4.
4US put up more of a fight against Steam Rollers, with Oliver "figment" Thompson attempting to keep his team's chin up on Overpass. Unfortunately, bul's Steam Rollers ultimately rolled over 4US 16-9.
The Canadian Grizzlys caught up with an abnormal ex-Velocity, featuring Vision's Alex "aproto" Protopapas, the forever-teamless Ian "motm" Hardy, Final Feature's Damian "droid" Boulware, and Guerilla Tactics' Aleksandar "ALEKSANDAR" Hinojosa. Grizzlys crushed ex-Velocity in the first half, going 12-3 with Cedric "M3lio" Perrault and Samuel "Kizy" Leclerc-Dulong leading the charge for the Canadian squad. aproto struggled to lead ex-Velocity back to an even scoreline, with Grizzlys closing the map in the second half 16-8.
Down to just four teams, the semifinals began with iNTACT taking on the Steam Rollers. Both teams were evenly matched in the first half of Cache, with iNTACT ultimately edging out an 8-7 lead going into halftime. After conceding the first two rounds of the second half, Christopher "Swahn" Swahn led iNTACT through eight round wins to close the map 16-10.
Up 1-0, iNTACT rolled Steam Rollers on Inferno, taking a strong 13-2 scoreline with Keanu "DaneJoris" Reyes at the helm. Mike "Swisher" Schmid attempted to return the favor with an incredible performance in the second half, but Steam Rollers ultimately fell short, with iNTACT taking the map 16-10.
iNTACTSteam Rollers| iNTACT |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Christopher 'Swahn' Swahn |
44 - 29 | +15 | 82.3 | 82.7% | 1.35 |
| Michael 'Turismo' Haas |
42 - 37 | +5 | 94.7 | 69.2% | 1.18 |
| Gabe 'Spongey' Greiner |
39 - 31 | +8 | 78.7 | 71.2% | 1.17 |
| Alan 'Shakezullah' Hardeman |
31 - 31 | +0 | 72.9 | 71.2% | 1.09 |
| Keanu 'Danejoris' Reyes |
34 - 33 | +1 | 68.4 | 73.1% | 1.03 |
| Steam Rollers |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michael 'Swisher' Schmid |
41 - 40 | +1 | 89.8 | 67.3% | 1.21 |
| Rafael 'clone' Singer |
36 - 35 | +1 | 70.7 | 63.5% | 1.02 |
 Erik 'penny' Penny |
35 - 39 | -4 | 65.4 | 65.4% | 0.94 |
| Nicholas 'nicholasP' Plonski |
26 - 35 | -9 | 56.1 | 55.8% | 0.76 |
| John 'Drenit' Tobjasz |
23 - 42 | -19 | 59.5 | 63.5% | 0.74 |
The other end of the bracket saw the South African Bravado compete with the Canadian Grizzlys for the other spot in the closed qualifier. Bravado kicked off the series on Overpass, with a decent 9-6 lead in the first half. David "J0LZ" Jolin deflected Bravado's scoreline in the second half, mounting a comeback that ultimately took the map into overtime. In overtime, Aran "Sonic" Groesbeek and Dimitri "Detrony" Hadjipaschali crushed Grizzlys in overtime, taking four straight rounds to win Bravado the first map 19-15.
Bravado continued their momentum onto Inferno, crushing Grizzlys with an 11-4 lead first half led by Rhys "Fadey" Armstrong. In the second half, Bravado began to play more conservatively as Mathieu "INCREDIBLE" Bergeron continued pulling out AWP plays to keep his team in the game. While Grizzlys were able to achieve double-digits, Bravado took the second map in the end 16-12, closing the series 2-0.
BravadoGrizzlys| Bravado |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek |
52 - 35 | +17 | 93.1 | 77.4% | 1.27 |
| Rhys 'Fadey' Armstrong |
50 - 45 | +5 | 84.9 | 64.5% | 1.16 |
| Dimitri 'Detrony' Hadjipaschali |
44 - 40 | +4 | 74.2 | 72.6% | 1.09 |
| Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou |
38 - 39 | -1 | 69.3 | 72.6% | 1.02 |
| Ruan 'ELUSIVE' van Wyk |
32 - 40 | -8 | 60.1 | 61.3% | 0.85 |
| Grizzlys |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| David 'J0LZ' Jolin |
51 - 40 | +11 | 90.0 | 74.2% | 1.28 |
| Mathieu 'INCRED' Bergeron |
43 - 43 | +0 | 63.9 | 67.7% | 0.98 |
| Cedric 'Melio' Perrault |
39 - 44 | -5 | 75.8 | 59.7% | 0.95 |
| Francis 'NANO' Tremblay |
30 - 43 | -13 | 63.6 | 62.9% | 0.88 |
| Samuel 'Kizy' Leclerc-Dulong |
36 - 47 | -11 | 64.5 | 59.7% | 0.79 |
The team list for the Americas Minor closed qualifier is now:
| Envy |
eUnited |
| Ghost |
 Luminosity |
| NRG |
Rogue |
| Spacestation |
Swole Patrol |
| FURIA |
Singularity |
| Mythic |
oNe |
| Bravado |
iNTACT |
 Qualifier #4 |
Qualifier #4 |
