EPL and MDL teams reign supreme after first day of Marseille Qualifier
The first day of the DreamHack Marseille Open Qualifiers concluded last night, with the usual suspects coming out on top. What began as nearly a 90 team single-elimination bracket, now comes down to only fourteen teams remaining.
The winners of the Closed Qualifier will claim one of three remaining vacancies at the DreamHack Masters Marseille. The other two spots will be filled by European teams.
While most all of the EPL and MDL teams in attendance made it through the first day without a hitch, a notable upset was that of the current 12-4 Open team, On The Run, as they sniped down the 10th ranked MDL team, F1-racecar-PEEK.
It was around the third stage of the bracket where the competition began to heat up. Teams like Armada crumbled under the weight of the EPL monsters Luminosity, while main jammers were eliminated by Torqued. Both competing female teams, Dignitas and CLG Red, had their runs cut short by oNe and RONIN respectively.
Also read: DreamHack show Valve how it should be done, release full Open qualifier schedule for 2018A few of the fourth round matches have already taken place as teams elected to play late into the night. oNe were taken out by their fellow countrymen Luminosity, and OpTic putting an end to On The Run's run.
While OpTic awaits to see whether they will be playing against Etherian or RONIN after the completion of their match, Luminosity lies in wait to see if they will be facing off against Swole Patrol or Most Wanted.
An interesting match-up to look forward to tomorrow would be the South African team Bravado, as they butt heads with a Dignitas that has failed to live up to the reputation they garnered during their time in MDL last season. The Americans will be looking to avenge the loss handed to them by the internationals in the ECS Season 5 Closed Qualifier.
Another neck-and-neck match-up will be that of Etherian and RONIN. Both teams have nearly identical records in MDL after the conclusion of their seasonal matches and the single time the two faced-off it ended in a close 16-12 victory for RONIN.
Listed below are the first set of matches that will kick-off Day 2:
| Match-up | |
 Etherian vs. RONIN |
|
 OpTic vs. Winner of Etherian/RONIN |
|
| Torqued vs. Wise |
|
Dignitas vs.  Bravado |
|
EZG Reunion vs.  Ghost |
|
| AZIO vs. Values |
|
| Most Wanted vs. SWOLE PATROL |
|
 Luminosity vs. Winner of Most Wanted/SWOLE PATROL |
The action resumes at 4:00 PM EDT. By the end of the day, four of these teams will be decided as the ones who will take on compLexity, Renegades, Splyce, and NRG in the Closed Qualifier on Sunday.
Which team has what it takes to make it to Marseille? Let us know your predictions in the comments below!
