FURIA advance to EPICENTER closed qualifier over Swole Patrol
FURIA have taken down Swole Patrol 2-1 to secure themselves a slot in the EPICENTER Moscow 2018 closed qualifier, where they'll be joined by three teams from upcoming open qualifiers and an additional four invited sides.
Day 2 of the first open qualifier began with FURIA taking on Jasper "sfX" Ko's small meats crew on Inferno and Nuke. The Brazilian side were able to dismantle small meats on the American team's pick of Inferno, putting up a 12-3 first half before closing out the map thanks to a heroic 1.23 KPR performance by Kaike "kscerato" Cerato.
Nuke was a closer affair overall as the two teams split rounds at the half, with FURIA narrowly edging out an 8-7 lead after a lackluster CT side. The second half saw small meats battle back by taking seven of the nine rounds to start, but it was FURIA who claimed match point first with five rounds in a row. sfX and co. managed to secure overtime, but FURIA put an end to their hopes with a 19-17 victory to advance to the grand finals.
FURIAsmall meats| FURIA |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato |
58 - 32 | +26 | 101.8 | 82.8% | 1.56 |
| Yuri 'yuurih' Santos |
50 - 32 | +18 | 88.2 | 72.4% | 1.34 |
| Guilherme 'spacca' Spacca |
40 - 34 | +6 | 73.4 | 79.3% | 1.13 |
| Andrei 'arT' Piovezan |
41 - 40 | +1 | 77.3 | 67.2% | 1.13 |
| Vinicius 'VINI' Figueiredo |
32 - 33 | -1 | 63.0 | 74.1% | 0.94 |
| small meats |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Joel 'jcrueL' Cruel |
48 - 42 | +6 | 91.8 | 65.5% | 1.24 |
| John 'Arbiter' Burt |
37 - 44 | -7 | 62.7 | 60.3% | 0.82 |
| Jacob 'L0NER' Webster |
29 - 42 | -13 | 54.3 | 58.6% | 0.79 |
| Jasper 'sfX' Ko |
29 - 48 | -19 | 57.3 | 51.7% | 0.69 |
| Nolan 'Temperature' Pepper |
28 - 45 | -17 | 56.8 | 51.7% | 0.69 |
Swole Patrol faced a greater danger on the opposite side of the bracket in their match against Infamous, where a narrow 2-1 victory saw Ryan "freakazoid" Abadir and co. take Train (16-6) and Cache (16-14) while falling on Inferno (13-16).
A dominant 11-4 T side half on Train helmed by Jordan "Zellsis" Montemurro and Edgar "MarKE" Jimenez allowed for a swift first map win for the Patrol, allowing only two final rounds in the second half before taking the series to Inferno.
Infamous' pick of Inferno saw them garner a mere 6 rounds on their CT side despite an inital 3-0 lead off the back of a pistol round victory, but a strong performance from Brendan "Bwills" Williams allowed for a T side comeback from his team. Three crucial economic resets against Swole Patrol allowed Infamous to fight back throughout the half as the team narrowly edged out a map win 16-13.
Swole Patrol mustered another dominant first half on Cache as they gave Infamous a taste of their own medicine, resetting the CT economy to work their way up to an 11-4 lead. The cursed scoreline almost saw Infamous rally a comeback in the second half as a pistol round victory spurred a run of rounds, but Swole Patrol attained match point and snuck through to the grand final after putting a stop to Infamous' final five round comeback attempt.
Swole PatrolInfamous| Swole Patrol |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jordan 'Zellsis' Montemurro |
69 - 48 | +21 | 90.1 | 75.3% | 1.33 |
| Braxton 'swag' Pierce |
62 - 50 | +12 | 87.2 | 80.2% | 1.29 |
 Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado |
56 - 47 | +9 | 67.8 | 80.2% | 1.13 |
| Ryan 'freakazoid' Abadir |
55 - 60 | -5 | 86.8 | 70.4% | 1.13 |
| Austin 'Cooper' Abadir |
55 - 50 | +5 | 66.1 | 75.3% | 1.04 |
| Infamous |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Josh 'JoshRT' Lee |
58 - 52 | +6 | 73.7 | 67.9% | 1.10 |
| Mike 'real_bM' Desanto |
52 - 62 | -10 | 73.9 | 70.4% | 1.00 |
| Blake 'Strings' Stringer |
55 - 69 | -14 | 77.3 | 60.5% | 0.92 |
| Andy 'devastation' Parr |
44 - 55 | -11 | 70.2 | 65.4% | 0.91 |
| Brendan 'Bwills' Williams |
44 - 59 | -15 | 58.8 | 69.1% | 0.84 |
The grand final predictably saw FURIA up against Swole Patrol, with Mirage, Overpass, and Train set to be the the grounds for battle. It was FURIA who would emerge victorious on Train (16-11) after the first two maps were split between the teams with 16-5 scorelines.
The Brazilian team left little room for Swole Patrol to operate on Mirage as 13 T side rounds left Swole Patrol completely shut out of the map. Swole Patrol managed a similar feat as a 9-0 lead on Overpass allowed for a commanding run in the first half, and quickly brought their own map pick to a close after FURIA managed only five rounds in a row.
Train saw FURIA pull decidedly ahead on their CT side with a pistol round victory, surging up to a 5-0 lead before Swole Patrol were able to reply. Despite being reset in the ensuing round, Austin "Cooper-" Abadir and co. fought back for two rounds before FURIA regained control, winning five of the remaining six rounds in the half.
Three kills in the second half pistol by Cooper- granted Swole Patrol a window for a comeback from the 11-4 scoreline, and a reset after the first gun round went the way of FURIA gave Swole Patrol an additional trio of rounds before FURIA regained control. Constant economic pressure by FURIA in their lost rounds allowed the Brazilians to capitalize off of a single round win, pushing them forward to 16 rounds to advance to the closed qualifier.
FURIASwole Patrol| FURIA |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato |
55 - 43 | +12 | 84.9 | 73.9% | 1.27 |
| Vinicius 'VINI' Figueiredo |
47 - 44 | +3 | 81.9 | 72.5% | 1.17 |
| Yuri 'yuurih' Santos |
47 - 43 | +4 | 78.6 | 73.9% | 1.10 |
| Andrei 'arT' Piovezan |
51 - 45 | +6 | 70.8 | 63.8% | 1.09 |
| Guilherme 'spacca' Spacca |
32 - 44 | -12 | 51.0 | 62.3% | 0.77 |
| Swole Patrol |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braxton 'swag' Pierce |
53 - 41 | +12 | 83.4 | 68.1% | 1.17 |
| Austin 'Cooper' Abadir |
52 - 47 | +5 | 65.8 | 62.3% | 0.95 |
| Ryan 'freakazoid' Abadir |
35 - 46 | -11 | 67.0 | 66.7% | 0.86 |
| Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado |
35 - 45 | -10 | 65.0 | 66.7% | 0.85 |
| Jordan 'Zellsis' Montemurro |
43 - 54 | -11 | 67.6 | 60.9% | 0.83 |
FURIA are the first team to claim a spot in the EPICENTER Moscow 2018 closed qualifier, where they're set to be joined by three teams from upcoming open qualifiers. An additional four teams are set to receive direct invites to the qualifier, and are likely to be revealed closer to start of the closed qualifier that runs from September 8-9th.
Signups for the remaining trio of qualifiers are still open on FACEIT's website, and can be found at the links below:
- Qualifier #2 - August 25th
- Qualifier #3 - August 29th
- Qualifier #4 - September 2nd
