North give ENCE a hard time, qualify for IEM Chicago
After falling to AVANGAR in the upper bracket yesterday, ENCE had one more chance to take the second slot at IEM Chicago, with only North standing in their way.
On Mirage, ENCE started out strong, taking the first half 9-6 powered by a strong six-round streak. In the second half, Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye powered North through a competitive second half, tying the map at 14-14 and nearly taking match point. Nonetheless, ENCE edged out North in the final two rounds, just barely taking the first map 16-14.
Inferno played out similarly to the first map, with ENCE taking a decent lead with a 9-6 scoreline at halftime. Unlike Mirage, North's performance in the second half improved vastly, with Valdemar "valde" Bjørn Vangså closing out the map 16-12 in favor of North, tying up the series 1-1.
The Finns' hardships did not stop on Nuke, with North starting out on the CT-side on Nuke. The Danes pummeled ENCE in the first half with a 12-3 scoreline at halftime not boding well for the Finnish team. Despite the dominant performance from North, ENCE sought to bring the map back in their favor, taking five straight rounds off North and putting themselves at double digits. Unfortunately, ENCE's effort weren't enough as North closed out map 16-10, giving them the series 2-1 and qualifying North for IEM Chicago.
ENCENorth| ENCE |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen |
61 - 64 | -3 | 89.0 | 69.0% | 1.07 |
| Jani 'Aerial' Jussila |
55 - 60 | -5 | 71.0 | 69.0% | 0.98 |
| Sami 'xseveN' Laasanen |
48 - 56 | -8 | 66.7 | 70.2% | 0.94 |
| Aleksi 'allu' Jalli |
53 - 54 | -1 | 65.9 | 65.5% | 0.94 |
| Jere 'sergej' Salo |
57 - 65 | -8 | 73.9 | 63.1% | 0.93 |
| North |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Markus 'Kjaerbye' Kjærbye |
73 - 52 | +21 | 86.9 | 77.4% | 1.33 |
| Valdemar 'valde' Bjørn Vangså |
67 - 53 | +14 | 88.6 | 75.0% | 1.23 |
| Nikolaj 'niko' Kristensen |
52 - 54 | -2 | 69.1 | 73.8% | 1.05 |
| Philip 'aizy' Aistrup |
54 - 54 | +0 | 73.3 | 69.0% | 1.03 |
| Mathias 'MSL' Lauridsen |
52 - 61 | -9 | 65.6 | 66.7% | 0.93 |
With the Danes joining the Kazakhstanis, the team list for IEM Chicago is now:
| Astralis |
 BIG |
 FaZe |
 fnatic |
 Liquid |
 MIBR |
| mousesports |
 Na`Vi |
 NRG |
 Renegades |
 AVANGAR |
North |
| Qualifier |
 SA Qualifier |
| Asia Qualifier |
UCC CIS Qualifier |
The North American slot is set to be filled today, with Swole Patrol and eUnited duking it out in the consolation final later tonight. The winner of the consolation final will move on to the grand finals, where Cloud9 are currently waiting. The winner of the grand final will ultimately move on to the $250,000 tournament in Chicago.
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