Swole Patrol and FURIA headline EPICENTER qualifier #1 semifinals
Day 1 of the first open qualifier for EPICENTER Moscow 2018 has come to a close, seeing Swole Patrol, FURIA, Infamous, and small meats through to the semifinals. The four teams are set to face off in the semifinals tomorrow as they look to claim a single spot in the closed qualifier in September.
The quarterfinals saw Swole Patrol handily dispatch of the new Excelerate roster with a 13-2 first half on Inferno, with Jordan "Zellsis" Montemurro and Austin "Cooper-" Abadir combining for a quick 16-6 finish.
FURIA dealt with the ESEA Advanced side of Hysteria in similar fashion, crushing the North American side on Mirage 16-7. Hysteria got off to a decent start with a four round streak on their CT side, but quickly found themselves stonewalled as the Brazilians fought back with nine rounds in a row.
Hysteria were able to snag the final two rounds of the half, but FURIA made quick work of shutting down the Advanced team's T side to swiftly close out the match.
Continuing with the trend of dominant scorelines, the former Prospects roster — now playing under the tag Infamous — also made quick work of CLG Red, who were fielding their sixth woman Stephanie "missharvey" Harvey in place of 17-year-old Emma "Emy" Choe.
The T side of Inferno saw Infamous garner 11 rounds to keep CLG Red's CT economy in constant turmoil, allowing for another swift finish in the second half with a 16-7 scoreline.
Jasper "sfX" Ko's side of small meats took on the ESEA Main squad of Truth in the fourth quarterfinal matchup, seeing yet another commanding lead after the first half as a 12-3 scoreline went the way of the small meats crew. Truth were able to fight back in the second half as nine rounds put them back in contention, but sfX and co. were able to close out the match to clinch a spot in the semifinals.
The two semifinal matchups are as follows:
 Swole Patrol |
vs. | Infamous |
 FURIA |
vs. | small meats |
The two best-of-three semifinals are set to kick off tomorrow at 2 PM EDT, with Swole Patrol and FURIA on opposite sides of the bracket. The two teams are likely to meet in the grand finals, where they would play for a single spot in the EPICENTER Moscow 2018 North America closed qualifier.
Signups are still open for the three remaining open qualifiers, set to take place over the next week and a half:
- Qualifier #2 - August 25th
- Qualifier #3 - August 29th
- Qualifier #4 - September 2nd
