NRG and Swole Patrol to EPICENTER 2018 Closed Qualifier Final
The first two rounds of games in the North America closed qualifier tournament for the EPICENTER 2018 Wild Card competition has finished, and we now have our final two teams who are competing for that spot in Moscow.
The qualifier commenced with the quarterfinal matches between the four qualifying teams of BlackOut, Bravado, FURIA and Swole Patrol. The first to finish was between BlackOut and Bravado, with the American team coming out on top in two swift maps. Inferno saw a dominant first half from BlackOut easily finished up for a 16-5 win, with Nuke finishing up similarly for a 16-9 win, even if they did need to fight slightly more by the end.
BlackOutBravado| BlackOut |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Collin 'wrath' McSweegan |
54 - 27 | +27 | 111.9 | 84.8% | 1.74 |
| Chad 'Oderus' Miller |
48 - 22 | +26 | 101.0 | 80.4% | 1.65 |
 Connor 'CONNOR93' Glover |
45 - 25 | +20 | 98.3 | 91.3% | 1.52 |
| Jonathan 'Jonji' Carey |
27 - 32 | -5 | 73.9 | 78.3% | 1.06 |
| Sebastian 'seb' Bucki |
20 - 29 | -9 | 50.1 | 71.7% | 0.76 |
| Bravado |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek |
34 - 36 | -2 | 92.7 | 63.0% | 1.11 |
| Dimitri 'Detrony' Hadjipaschali |
27 - 40 | -13 | 70.9 | 54.3% | 0.84 |
| Ruan 'ELUSIVE' van Wyk |
29 - 36 | -7 | 60.9 | 58.7% | 0.78 |
| Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou |
26 - 42 | -16 | 57.0 | 54.3% | 0.64 |
| Rhys 'Fadey' Armstrong |
18 - 40 | -22 | 59.4 | 39.1% | 0.58 |
Swole Patrol took their win over FURIA in two maps as well, with the Americans comfortably overcoming their Brazilian opponents 16-9 on Cache, having to work slightly harder than expected after a dominant 12-3 half. Nuke was a vastly different story, with Swole Patrol taking a strong 13-2 lead but then having to defend it against a Brazilian onslaught that followed in the second half, eventually taking the 16-13 win.
FURIASwole Patrol| FURIA |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato |
36 - 35 | +1 | 70.8 | 68.5% | 1.00 |
| Yuri 'yuurih' Santos |
33 - 42 | -9 | 77.2 | 57.4% | 0.87 |
| Vinicius 'VINI' Figueiredo |
35 - 42 | -7 | 66.0 | 66.7% | 0.81 |
| Andrei 'arT' Piovezan |
26 - 39 | -13 | 58.2 | 59.3% | 0.77 |
| Guilherme 'spacca' Spacca |
20 - 43 | -23 | 42.0 | 55.6% | 0.56 |
| Swole Patrol |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jordan 'Zellsis' Montemurro |
49 - 29 | +20 | 92.3 | 74.1% | 1.40 |
| Braxton 'swag' Pierce |
42 - 25 | +17 | 85.4 | 77.8% | 1.38 |
 Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado |
38 - 31 | +7 | 76.0 | 77.8% | 1.19 |
| Austin 'Cooper' Abadir |
39 - 27 | +12 | 70.5 | 74.1% | 1.19 |
| Ryan 'freakazoid' Abadir |
33 - 38 | -5 | 78.6 | 70.4% | 1.04 |
The next round saw the invited teams of NRG and eUnited take part. The first game to finish up was NRG against BlackOut, where NRG was using a very capable stand-in in the form of Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert. Train was a close slog between the two teams, with NRG taking a narrow 8-7 lead in the first half before eventually finishing it out 16-12. Nuke was a simpler affair for NRG, taking a 9-6 lead before cementing the victory in the second round for a 16-7 win.
NRGBlackOut| NRG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jacob 'FugLy' Medina |
50 - 25 | +25 | 108.0 | 84.3% | 1.69 |
 Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov |
48 - 29 | +19 | 90.0 | 74.5% | 1.41 |
| Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte |
37 - 33 | +4 | 70.2 | 84.3% | 1.15 |
| Jordan 'n0thing' Gilbert |
35 - 33 | +2 | 79.3 | 68.6% | 1.09 |
| Ethan 'Ethan' Arnold |
36 - 33 | +3 | 76.3 | 70.6% | 1.08 |
| BlackOut |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sebastian 'seb' Bucki |
34 - 41 | -7 | 79.7 | 64.7% | 0.94 |
| Collin 'wrath' McSweegan |
35 - 44 | -9 | 78.4 | 64.7% | 0.90 |
| Jonathan 'Jonji' Carey |
31 - 41 | -10 | 70.0 | 64.7% | 0.85 |
| Chad 'Oderus' Miller |
30 - 41 | -11 | 65.9 | 51.0% | 0.80 |
| Connor 'CONNOR93' Glover |
23 - 39 | -16 | 53.9 | 51.0% | 0.64 |
The other semifinal saw Swole Patrol decimate eUnited in two, very short maps. The first was Dust2, where a 12-3 half from Swole Patrol was concluded quickly in the second half after undoing their opponent's pistol round victory for a 16-4 win. Overpass was shorter, with a 13-2 half being finished up with a 16-2 win not too long after. For their part, however, eUnited had been knocked out of DreamHack Open Montreal earlier in the day and were competing on the practice PCs at the venue, with only the use of in-ear headphones available to them.
eUnitedSwole Patrol| eUnited |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Will 'dazzLe' Loafman |
20 - 33 | -13 | 77.3 | 57.9% | 0.79 |
| Brandon 'Ace' Winn |
20 - 34 | -14 | 62.6 | 52.6% | 0.73 |
| Skyler 'Relyks' Weaver |
22 - 35 | -13 | 55.0 | 55.3% | 0.59 |
| Kaleb 'moose' Jayne |
16 - 32 | -16 | 51.7 | 50.0% | 0.57 |
| Michael 'dapr' Gulino |
15 - 36 | -21 | 50.7 | 50.0% | 0.51 |
| Swole Patrol |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austin 'Cooper' Abadir |
50 - 15 | +35 | 117.7 | 84.2% | 1.99 |
| Braxton 'swag' Pierce |
36 - 18 | +18 | 97.6 | 86.8% | 1.60 |
| Ryan 'freakazoid' Abadir |
35 - 28 | +7 | 110.9 | 73.7% | 1.38 |
| Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado |
23 - 14 | +9 | 69.7 | 84.2% | 1.31 |
| Jordan 'Zellsis' Montemurro |
26 - 19 | +7 | 65.9 | 76.3% | 1.15 |
This leaves the final to be held between NRG and Swole Patrol, with the game scheduled to take place at 3pm EDT. The winner of this game will be the North American representative at the EPICENTER Moscow 2018 Wild Card LAN qualifier in the Russian capital.
NRGSwole Patrol| NRG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte |
67 - 52 | +15 | 78.1 | 75.6% | 1.18 |
| Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov |
61 - 53 | +8 | 71.3 | 72.0% | 1.13 |
| Ethan 'Ethan' Arnold |
59 - 58 | +1 | 88.7 | 65.9% | 1.10 |
| Jacob 'FugLy' Medina |
49 - 55 | -6 | 62.5 | 72.0% | 0.96 |
| Jordan 'n0thing' Gilbert |
43 - 61 | -18 | 65.2 | 62.2% | 0.83 |
| Swole Patrol |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jordan 'Zellsis' Montemurro |
63 - 52 | +11 | 91.0 | 76.8% | 1.23 |
| Austin 'Cooper' Abadir |
64 - 51 | +13 | 73.0 | 74.4% | 1.13 |
| Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado |
61 - 58 | +3 | 72.4 | 73.2% | 1.09 |
| Braxton 'swag' Pierce |
47 - 56 | -9 | 69.5 | 63.4% | 0.89 |
| Ryan 'freakazoid' Abadir |
44 - 62 | -18 | 67.0 | 68.3% | 0.86 |
