Triumph and High Coast advance to DreamHack Masters Spring Closed Qualifier
Triumph and High Coast defeated Rebirth and Recon 5, respectively, to punch their tickets to today's DreamHack Masters Spring Closed Qualifier. The latter were given a second chance after nobody realized until yesterday that paiN had already qualified for the main event by winning DreamHack Open January.
Rebirth got the better of Triumph in their first ESEA Premier series since Danny "cxzi" Strzelcyzk swapped rosters and it looked like they would do the same yesterday with a Closed Qualifier spot on the line. Rebirth quickly snagged an 11-4 lead on their T-side of Mirage and then traded rounds with Triumph until they secured their 1-0 series lead. Triumph successfully fought off four consecutive match points but couldn't bring things all the way back and force overtime. David "cynic" Polster tried his best to carry Triumph through with a server-high 28 kills, but it wasn't enough to overcome Rebirth's big first half lead. Ethan "reck" Serrano led Rebirth with 22 eliminations in the win.
However, when the venue shifted to Train the series momentum shifted as well. Triumph scraped out a slim 8-7 lead on their T-side, but then allowed just two second-half rounds to hold Rebirth to single digits as they evened the series out at one map apiece. This time it was Brendan "Bwills" Williams that led Triumph with 23 frags, while cxzi was the biggest thorn in his former team's side with 21 kills of his own.
A similar storyline played out in the Inferno decider. Triumph claimed a slim 9-6 lead on their CT-side, but then bullied Rebirth in the second half. Just one of their seven second-half round wins came via detonation, while the rest were claimed through elimination. cynic topped the server once again with 24 kills, while reck was the only player on Rebirth who had more than 12 eliminations, he finished with 20 frags in the loss. Carson "nosraC" O'Reilly's frustration spilled into game chat at the end of the series, leading to an amusing exchange on Twitter.
TriumphRebirth| Triumph |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 David 'cynic' Polster |
73 - 43 | +30 | 100.8 | 81.8% | 1.51 |
| Austin 'Cooper' Abadir |
58 - 42 | +16 | 74.9 | 72.7% | 1.22 |
| Brendan 'Bwills' Williams |
47 - 50 | -3 | 67.2 | 68.8% | 1.00 |
| Wesley 'viz' Harris |
42 - 48 | -6 | 70.7 | 74.0% | 0.99 |
| Alan 'Shakezullah' Hardeman |
50 - 49 | +1 | 66.3 | 66.2% | 0.97 |
| Rebirth |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Danny 'cxzi' Strzelczyk |
51 - 55 | -4 | 80.9 | 54.5% | 1.03 |
| Ethan 'reck' Serrano |
51 - 55 | -4 | 69.8 | 61.0% | 0.94 |
 Sebastian 'retchy' Tropiano |
48 - 53 | -5 | 66.0 | 59.7% | 0.92 |
| Zack 'XotiC' Elshani |
43 - 49 | -6 | 58.6 | 66.2% | 0.87 |
| Carson 'nosraC' O'Reilly |
39 - 60 | -21 | 65.5 | 66.2% | 0.84 |
The second series ended up being a much more straightforward affair for High Coast than the quadruple overtime match against Oceanus that preceded it. High Coast, still featuring Ian "motm" Hardy in place of Jonathan "djay" Dallal, seized a 9-6 lead on CT-side and then pulled together a string of four wins to build their lead to 13-8. They conceded three rounds to Recon 5 but then bounced back with three rounds of their own to secure the 1-0 series lead. The stand-in, Gage "Infinite" Green, led Recon 5 with 20 kills but it was Josh "PwnAlone" Pigue that led the server with 29 eliminations.
Overpass was even more straightforward for High Coast as they jumped out to an 11-4 lead on T-side, then conceded just a single round in their defensive half as they secured the series sweep. motm was the man of the map with 27 kills, while Tyler "tweiss" Weiss finished atop Recon 5's side of the scoreboard with 13 frags.
Recon 5High Coast| Recon 5 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tyler 'tweiss' Weiss |
29 - 34 | -5 | 73.4 | 64.6% | 0.94 |
| Gage 'Infinite' Green |
28 - 38 | -10 | 69.5 | 56.2% | 0.80 |
| Koby 'kobruh' Higgs |
26 - 37 | -11 | 64.0 | 50.0% | 0.79 |
| Dominick 'JazzPimp' Dimpfel |
20 - 37 | -17 | 54.5 | 58.3% | 0.66 |
| Austin 'AAustiN' Urb |
26 - 40 | -14 | 57.2 | 54.2% | 0.61 |
| High Coast |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Josh 'PwnAlone' Pigue |
52 - 23 | +29 | 108.5 | 87.5% | 1.77 |
| Ian 'motm' Hardy |
45 - 28 | +17 | 96.2 | 77.1% | 1.45 |
 Rodrigo 'RCF' Figueiredo |
33 - 28 | +5 | 73.3 | 72.9% | 1.18 |
| Ben 'ben1337' Smith |
29 - 23 | +6 | 64.2 | 83.3% | 1.16 |
| Brandon 'bew' Roberts |
27 - 28 | -1 | 63.9 | 70.8% | 0.96 |
As a result, today's Closed Qualifier matchups will be:
 Extra Salt |
vs. | Triumph |
| Bad News Bears |
vs. | High Coast |
Today's best-of-three matches will begin at 5PM EST. There is only one spot available for DreamHack Masters Spring 2021.
