AVANGAR beat ENCE for a spot in IEM Chicago
The first of two European qualifier winners has finally been decided with AVANGAR taking a 2-1 victory over Finnish squad ENCE.
The Kazakhstanis were off to a cold start losing 16-11 on Mirage due to Jani "Aerial" Jussila taking control of the game with 109.4 ADR. Lone Russian Ali "Jame" Djami tried to match the pace Aerial was setting and was unable to keep up.
The second map didn't begin how AVANGAR would've hoped as well as they were down 10-5 on their CT side of Inferno at half. On the back of a pistol round win, they mounted their comeback and the teams played in overtime. Thanks to Alexey "qikert" Golubev's consistent fragging power, AVANGAR was able to pull through and sweep the OT for a 19-15 triumph.
The final map on Train continued to excite as AVANGAR was losing at halftime for the third straight map. Their CT side of Train wasn't enough to get the better of ENCE, however it was their T side that proved fruitful as they ran it back for a 16-14 win. Jame continued to amaze as his presence was consisently felt throughout the series with the highest frag count on the team.
ENCEAVANGAR| ENCE |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jani 'Aerial' Jussila |
81 - 68 | +13 | 86.6 | 74.7% | 1.27 |
| Sami 'xseveN' Laasanen |
67 - 60 | +7 | 81.6 | 71.4% | 1.14 |
| Jere 'sergej' Salo |
57 - 58 | -1 | 71.2 | 72.5% | 1.00 |
| Aleksi 'allu' Jalli |
57 - 59 | -2 | 65.9 | 65.9% | 1.00 |
| Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen |
39 - 66 | -27 | 62.5 | 65.9% | 0.79 |
| AVANGAR |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Dzhami 'Jame' Ali |
81 - 52 | +29 | 90.0 | 81.3% | 1.41 |
 Aidyn 'KrizzeN' Turlybekov |
56 - 61 | -5 | 77.4 | 74.7% | 1.03 |
| Timur 'buster' Tulepov |
59 - 58 | +1 | 69.2 | 63.7% | 1.02 |
| Alexey 'Qikert' Golubev |
61 - 62 | -1 | 69.0 | 71.4% | 1.00 |
| Bektiyar 'fitch' Bahytov |
54 - 68 | -14 | 72.0 | 69.2% | 0.94 |
The team list for IEM Chicago now looks like:
 Astralis |
 BIG |
 FaZe |
 fnatic |
 Liquid |
 MIBR |
| mousesports |
 Na`Vi |
 NRG |
 Renegades |
| AVANGAR |
Qualifier |
| Qualifier |
 SA Qualifier |
| Asia Qualifier |
UCC CIS Qualifier |
The final EU qualifier spot is reserved for the winner of the Consolidation Final between ENCE and the winner of North/Gambit.
The single NA qualifier spot is still up for grabs with Cloud9 playing eUnited today for a spot in the Grand Finals. The lower bracket round two will feature Swole Patrol against BlackOut and Vision will face Team One.
