Aether and Fisher College claim final spots in PGL Bucharest Closed Qualifier
Last night saw the second PGL Bucharest NA Open Qualifier conclude, seeing Aether and Fisher College top the 27-team event. Unlike the first qualifier which had to be played over one day due to tech issues, the second Open Qualifier went off without a hitch allowing the teams to split their matches across two days.
Aether's road through the Open Qualifier was relatively uneventful, with their run starting with a 13-7 win over PerfectSymphony in the Ro32 before taking a 13-8 win over Omen in the Ro16. This set up a confrontation with ESEA Main side FRZ Unit, with this match proving to be Aether's most difficult as they won Inferno 13-4 before being forced to overtime on Mirage where they ultimately secured the map 16-13.
This led into an unexpectedly easy qualification match against the unknown squad of smokepoint. As can be expected, Aether had no trouble brushing aside the squad in their first-ever HLTV match, taking Mirage 13-2 and Inferno 13-3.
Aether| K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Gabe 'Nabaki' Smart |
23 - 27 | -4 | 80.6 | 67.7% | 1.02 |
| Bill 'Specter' Tran |
21 - 28 | -7 | 82.1 | 74.2% | 0.99 |
 Yurii 'Kura' Danchak |
17 - 27 | -10 | 58.6 | 64.5% | 0.69 |
| Austin 'coolgamer42' Waite |
17 - 29 | -12 | 68.1 | 58.1% | 0.66 |
| Ryan 'RMV1207' Vesey |
10 - 29 | -19 | 46.0 | 45.2% | 0.40 |
| Aether |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Chance 'xaler' Palmer |
29 - 14 | +15 | 90.0 | 87.1% | 1.79 |
| Brett 'brett' Rhein |
28 - 17 | +11 | 99.2 | 83.9% | 1.52 |
| Andrew 'Andrew' Burrell |
29 - 18 | +11 | 99.3 | 93.5% | 1.48 |
| Jason 's3rum' Zheng |
29 - 19 | +10 | 85.3 | 77.4% | 1.47 |
| Sebastian 'Seb' Dietrich |
24 - 20 | +4 | 85.4 | 80.6% | 1.27 |
On the other side of the bracket, a Fisher College squad featuring Matthew "tatm" Munro and Samuel "sml" Oliveira started their run with a 13-10 win over MONEY CREW on Ancient in the Ro32 before claiming another close 16-13 overtime win against NuTorious on Ancient. In the quarterfinals, Fisher College claimed a confident 2-0 win over A Great Chaos, smashing them 13-2 on Mirage while winning Nuke with a more competitive 13-9 scoreline.
That win set up a fairly one-sided qualification Bo3 versus F5 which kicked off with Milan "CrePoW" Libbrecht leading the charge with 20 kills as Fisher locked down Ancient 13-7. This led into Mirage where Alexander "AlekS" Andersson had the chance to play kingmaker with 17 kills to help push Fisher to a quick 13-6 win on Mirage.
Fisher CollegeF5| Fisher College |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Þorsteinn 'TH0R' Friðfinnsson |
40 - 11 | +29 | 88.4 | 87.2% | 1.57 |
 Alexander 'AlekS' Andersson |
31 - 22 | +9 | 105.6 | 84.6% | 1.34 |
 Milan 'CrePoW' Libbrecht |
32 - 27 | +5 | 91.5 | 79.5% | 1.27 |
 Samuel 'sml' Oliveira |
32 - 22 | +10 | 79.5 | 74.4% | 1.19 |
| Matthew 'tatm' Munro |
25 - 22 | +3 | 66.4 | 84.6% | 1.10 |
| F5 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nathaniel 'neight' Bell |
28 - 30 | -2 | 74.1 | 59.0% | 1.10 |
| Andrew 'Kermi' Cretella |
26 - 35 | -9 | 59.4 | 61.5% | 0.94 |
| Thomas 'bones' Degenhardt |
21 - 28 | -7 | 57.3 | 56.4% | 0.75 |
| Cameron 'cmrn' Longman |
15 - 34 | -19 | 57.9 | 48.7% | 0.71 |
| Ethan 'Signal' Riley |
13 - 33 | -20 | 51.2 | 43.6% | 0.51 |
With Aether and Fisher College claiming the final spots in the Closed Qualifier, the full team list consists of:
• 
BOSS
• Sakura
• Voca
• FlyQuest RED
• LAG
• Wildcard
• Aether
• 
Fisher College
The PGL Bucharest NA Closed Qualifier is set to begin on February 26th, with the eight teams fighting for one spot in the main event.
