Esports Nations Cup US and CA qualifiers start tomorrow: Check out the notable rosters featuring M80, Stewie2K, steel
Tomorrow the American and Canadian Open Qualifiers for the Esports Nations Cup are set to be played out, with one team from each country earning a spot in the eight-team North American Closed Qualifier. The Closed Qualifier stage will determine which three countries will send a team to Riyadh this November for the ENC, with the following countries representing the North America region:
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United States -
Canada -
Mexico -
Guatemala
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Panama -
Dominican Republic -
Costa Rica -
Puerto Rico
With the majority of the countries in the list not have developed Counter-Strike 2 scenes, all eyes will likely be on the American and Canadian teams as obvious choices to qualify for the main event. As teams can only feature three players from one VRS-ranked team, a number of novel mixteams have signed up for the qualifiers, with Dust2.us electing to highlight some of the most interesting below:
United States of America
For the USA qualifier, five teams stand out as strong candidates to top the qualifier, each based around an already-existing core of players. Of these, the heavy favorites is the roster based around the M80, STARS AND STRIPES, with the three Americans on M80 team linking up with Josh "oSee" Ohm and Adam "Grizz" Golden.
M80 are currently the top-ranked NA team on the Valve Regional Standings (VRS) in no small part thanks to their rifling core, while oSee and especially Grizz are extremely capable players in their own right.
STARS AND STRIPES consists of:
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Michael "Swisher" Schmid (M80)
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Mason "Lake" Sanderson (M80)
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Joshua "JBa" Barutt (M80)
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Josh "oSee" Ohm (NRG)
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Adam "Grizz" Golden (Marsborne)
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Rory "dephh" Jackson (Coach) (M80)
The other four teams are no slouches either as they are based around the Voca, LAG, SportsBetExpert, and Without a Roof cores. The latter of those four teams, Without a Roof, are able to use four players from their regular roster due to the team not being VRS ranked, with the team slotting in Justin "Sandman" Saulle for Canadian Justin "FaNg" Coakley.
The four squads are:
Voca
• Wyatt "snav" Phillippi (Voca)
• Carson "nosraC" O'Reilly (Voca)
• Paytyn "junior" Johnson (Voca)
• Khizar "Momo" Rehman
• Mason "mason" Watkins
LAG x BOSS NA
• Matthew "Cryptic" Whitmore (LAG)
• Brendan "Bwills" Williams (LAG)
• Keller "SLIGHT" Nilan (LAG)
• Kyle "Wolffe" Greenfield (playing for fun)
• Gavin "Fruitcupx" Norman (Festina Lente)
team consti
• Derek "dare" Brown (SBE)
• Jaxon "Peeping" Cornwell (SBE)
• Kevin "consti" Yi (SBE)
• Kamron "kmrn" Manii
• Nicholas "nicx" Lee (Marsborne)
• Brennan "Aureo" O’Connell (Coach) (SBE)
Without a Roof
• Jake "Stewie2K" Yip (WaR)
• Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte (WaR)
• Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham
• Timothy "autimatic" Ta (WaR)
• Justin "Sandman" Saulle (LAG)
• Danan "Danan" Flander (Coach) (WaR)
Canada
Unfortunately, the turnout for the Canadian qualifier was far more limited, with only six teams signing up. Among those only one squad really stands out, with it being real interesting as a true mixteam led by Josh "steel" Nissan and coached by Damian "daps" Steele.
Team Canada consists of:
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Josh "steel" Nissan
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Evindar "Drop" Isik (Chicken Coop)
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Justin "FaNg" Coakley (WaR)
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Dylan "DYLAN" Frivalt (Villainous)
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Andrew "shiraz" McGrath (Arctic Ace)
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Damian "daps" Steele (Coach) (NRG)
Both qualifiers will start tomorrow at 05:00PM.
