Swole Patrol and Bad News Bears secure final IEM Sydney closed qualifier slots
The final two teams for the IEM Sydney 2019 closed qualifier have been determined, with Swole Patrol and Bad News Bears defeating INTZ and oNe respectively to secure their spots in the upcoming qualifier, set to run from February 6-8th.
Swole Patrol were the first to earn their berth with a 2-0 win over the Brazilian side of INTZ (16-14 Dust2, 16-9 Mirage). Braxton "swag" Pierce and stand-in Sam "s0m" Oh helped their side take a narrow victory on their own map pick of Dust2, while Edgar "MarKE" Jimenez and Victor "food" Wong combined to steal away INTZ's choice of Mirage.
INTZ began Dust2 with a 2-0 start, but were unable to maintain their lead for long as Swole Patrol took the ensuing three rounds. The Brazilians managed to even the score, but were immediately reset as swag's side grabbed another trio to extend their lead to 6-3. The two teams battled for control, trading rounds back-and-forth, but once again it was Swole Patrol who emerged on top, stealing away another three rounds to end the half with a 10-5 lead.
INTZ were quick to narrow the margin in the second half, winning three rounds off the back of a pistol round victory. swag and s0m helped their team put a halt to the Brazilians streak, grabbing five rounds of their own to attain match point for Swole Patrol. INTZ attempted a comeback as they fought back for six straight rounds, but swag and s0m managed to overpower the Brazilians in the 30th round to edge out a 16-14 victory, with swag ending the map with 31 frags.
An identical first half scoreline occured on the second map, although this time it was Swole Patrol who took the initial lead at 4-0. Once again the two teams battled for control, and again Swole Patrol emerged on top for an additional set of five rounds. INTZ managed to battle back at the end of the half for three more rounds, with Swole Patrol taking a 10-5 lead at the half yet again.
Swole Patrol extended their lead with a win in the second half pistol round, but found themselves reset as the Brazilian side countered with three rounds of their own. Still, Swole Patrol continued to stay ahead with another round win, and were quick to reset INTZ after the Brazilians won another round to close out the match 16-9 in their favor.
Swole PatrolINTZ| Swole Patrol |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Braxton 'swag' Pierce |
49 - 27 | +22 | 85.9 | 80.0% | 1.43 |
 Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado |
48 - 38 | +10 | 101.0 | 81.8% | 1.37 |
| Victor 'food' Wong |
45 - 32 | +13 | 89.7 | 74.5% | 1.25 |
| Sam 's0m' Oh |
40 - 36 | +4 | 71.8 | 70.9% | 1.12 |
| Anthony 'vanity' Malaspina |
30 - 35 | -5 | 56.5 | 67.3% | 0.90 |
| INTZ |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Gustavo 'yel' Knittel |
38 - 36 | +2 | 78.0 | 65.5% | 1.11 |
| Vito 'kNgV-' Giuseppe |
48 - 43 | +5 | 83.1 | 60.0% | 1.11 |
| Alexandre 'xand' Zizi |
31 - 43 | -12 | 65.9 | 61.8% | 0.85 |
| Lucas 'destiny' Bullo |
25 - 43 | -18 | 56.7 | 61.8% | 0.75 |
| Marcelo 'chelo' Cespedes |
26 - 47 | -21 | 64.2 | 63.6% | 0.73 |
The second qualification spot was earned by Bad News Bears, who took down oNe 2-0 (19-17 Train, 19-16 Mirage) to join the team list for the closed qualifier.
Bad News Bears took the first round of Train, with oNe quickly replying with a forcebuy to steal back control. Mitch "mitch" Semago wasn't ready to concede the lead however, and a four-kill round by the player allowed for Bad News Bears to fight back and move up to a 5-1 scoreline. Alencar "trk" Rossato helped put his team back on the board, granting Bad News Bears just one additional round in the half as the Brazilians pushed their way up to a 9-6 lead at the half.
A win in the second half pistol round allowed for oNe to push up to an 11-6 scoreline, but mitch and Tyson "TenZ" Ngo combined to help their team take six of the ensuing seven rounds. oNe managed another two rounds, but it was Bad News Bears who were the first to claim match point with another set of three rounds before oNe grabbed the final round to force overtime. There, the Brazilians were unable to take any rounds in the first half, and eventually fell as Bad News Bears edged out a 19-17 victory to take the series to their own map pick of Mirage.
Bad News Bears kicked off Mirage with a 3-0 lead, but found themselves quickly locked out of bombsites as oNe granted them just one additional round in the half for an 11-4 lead.
The series seemed set to go to a third map as oNe grabbed another two rounds at the start of the second half, but Peter "ptr" Gurney's side began to claw back, winning eleven of the next twelve rounds to once again snatch match point away from oNe. The Brazilians won the final round of the half to force overtime once again, but managed just a single round as ptr won a 1vs3 to help his team take a second overtime victory and win the series 2-0.
TeamOneBad News Bears| TeamOne |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alencar 'trk' Rossato |
60 - 51 | +9 | 88.8 | 71.8% | 1.22 |
| Victor 'iDk' Torraca |
51 - 55 | -4 | 85.9 | 66.2% | 1.08 |
| Pedro 'Maluk3' Campos |
44 - 49 | -5 | 61.6 | 67.6% | 0.97 |
| Bruno 'BIT' Fukuda Lima |
41 - 48 | -7 | 66.7 | 70.4% | 0.94 |
 Nicolas 'NikoM' Miozzi |
36 - 51 | -15 | 62.6 | 63.4% | 0.79 |
| Bad News Bears |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mitch 'mitch' Semago |
63 - 41 | +22 | 91.6 | 80.3% | 1.40 |
| Peter 'ptr' Gurney |
51 - 41 | +10 | 65.8 | 71.8% | 1.19 |
 Tyson 'TenZ' Ngo |
60 - 53 | +7 | 92.9 | 71.8% | 1.18 |
| Josh 'shinobi' Abastado |
41 - 47 | -6 | 61.8 | 69.0% | 0.90 |
| Jeff 'RZU' Ngo |
37 - 50 | -13 | 67.1 | 70.4% | 0.86 |
The complete team list for the IEM Sydney 2019 closed qualifier is:
 compLexity |
Envy |
| Ghost |
Luminosity |
| eUnited |
Win Scrims Not Matches |
| Swole Patrol |
Bad News Bears |
The IEM Sydney 2019 closed qualifier is set to kick off on February 6th, and will run until February 8th, culminating in a best-of-five grand final. Just one of the above eight teams will earn a spot at IEM Sydney 2019, which will have $250,000 on offer and run from April 30 - May 5th.
