ESL reveals brackets for Minors closed qualifiers

2/3/2020 - 19:04

ESL has announced the first-round match-ups for the closed qualifiers for the Minors across four different regions.

The qualifying process for the Minors will continue later this week with the closed stage, featuring a double-elimination, best-of-three bracket. Half of the 96 slots were filled through invites, while the other half went to the leading teams of the open stage, which ran between January 31 and February 16.

The top eight teams in each of the four regions (Europe, the Americas, the CIS and Asia) will secure entry into their respective Minor, which will be held from April 26 through May 2 in Rio de Janeiro.

fnatic could face Dignitas in the second round of the bracket

Three-time Major champion and current No.4 team in the world fnatic headline the list for the Europe closed qualifier. The DreamHack Masters Malmö face the prospect of an all-Swedish clash in the second round against Dignitas if they manage to beat SMASH, featuring former fnatic member Joakim "⁠disco doplan⁠" Gidetun. Meanwhile, OG will be taking on Heretics in a reunion of former LDLC teammates Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt and Fabien "⁠kioShiMa⁠" Fiey.

The CIS closed qualifier will open with a mouth-watering clash between two big names in the region, HellRaisers and Winstrike, who are separated by just two spots in the rankings. FORZE and Spirit, the highest-ranked teams in the CIS, will be optimistic about their chances of a strong start after being paired with SpeedRunners and SG.pro, respectively.

Over in the Americas, the South American qualifier features a last-minute replacement following the withdrawal of DETONA, who will be taking part in this week's FLASHPOINT Global Qualifier, in Los Angeles. Replacing them will be another Brazilian team, Imperial, who will be facing Sharks in the opening round of matches.

Below you can find the match-ups for the first round:

Europe

Europe (March 7-8)

Eight slots at the Europe Minor available

fnatic vs. SMASH
Dignitas vs. Movistar Riders
GODSENT vs. Copenhagen Flames
MAD Lions vs. Sprout
Heroic vs. KOVA
OG vs. Heretics
BIG vs. Nordavind
Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Apeks

Americas

North America (March 7-9)

Six slots at the Americas Minor available

FURIA vs. Triumph
Envy vs. Swole Identity
Bad News Bears vs. Rugratz
eUnited vs. Ze Pug Godz
Gen.G vs. Divine
Orgless vs. Yeah
Chaos vs. Mythic
Cloud9 vs. LiViD

South America (March 3-5)

Two slots at the Americas Minor available

Sharks vs. Imperial
paiN vs. Isurus
BOOM vs. TeamOne
W7M vs. RED Canids

CIS

CIS (March 5-6)

Eight slots at the CIS Minor available

FORZE vs. SpeedRunners
HellRaisers vs. Winstrike
Nemiga vs. 1WIN
Gambit Youngsters vs. eL'quvet
Hard Legion vs. Unique
Syman vs. fbg
pro100 vs. Espada
Spirit vs. SG.pro

Asia

China (March 7-8)

Two slots at the Asia Minor available

TYLOO vs. Wubbalubbadubdub
Lynn Vision vs. R-Stars
EHOME vs. OneThree
ViCi vs. JiJieHao

Southeast Asia (March 7-8)

One slot at the Asia Minor available

Maple vs. HZ
Paper Rex vs. Lucid Dream
Bren vs. Beyond
BTRG vs. Blank

East Asia (March 4-6)

Two slots at the Asia Minor available

TIGER vs. ikarus
MVP PK vs. D13
Ignis vs. Aim4R
Mazaalai vs. Updraft

Oceania (March 7-8)

Two slots at the Asia Minor available

Renegades vs. catman
AVANT vs. Ground Zero
Chiefs vs. Rooster
ORDER vs. Skyfire

Middle East (March 5-7)

One slot at the Asia Minor available

JustPassingBy vs. Finest
Camel Riders vs. Aequus
Yalla vs. ATK
Goliath vs. NASR

#DreamOG

2020-03-02 19:04

2 replies

EZ4ALEKSIBOB

2020-03-02 20:05

fakin rich trash team with free invites

2020-03-02 21:08

epic

2020-03-02 19:05

eUnited vs Ze pug godZ 4v4 ? 🤔

2020-03-02 19:06

Ez4 Wubbalubbadubdub

+1 Wubbalubbadubdub > TYLUL

2020-03-02 19:50

+1 best team of all time

2020-03-02 22:37

valve, remove asian spots please

5 replies

2020-03-02 19:07

Remove CIS and NA too while you're at it

2020-03-02 19:10

1 reply

remove CIS and NA spots is stupid they have 2-3 teams that deserve a challenger stage

2020-03-02 19:27

Never, bad for marketing

2020-03-02 19:36

Valve won't since they want the sweet sweet money

2020-03-02 19:51

EZ OG

ez 4 Israel against arabs

PogU

C9 stickers and floppy dick sticker combo

rip isreali teams in middle east((

Riders unluko

EU minor quals more stacked than flashpoint

2020-03-02 19:08

2020-03-03 03:30

EZ 4 OG

Expected

when col playing oh wait

2020-03-02 19:11

kek fucking W

2020-03-02 21:41

Their performance in open qual was shamefully

2020-03-02 22:35

Respect for Dignitas BUT LET'S GO RIDERSSS

EZ 4 camel riders

EZ4XANTARES

2020-03-02 19:12

Dignitas vs Fnatic in the second round!

13 replies

woah woah woah slow down buckeroo

2020-03-02 19:15

12 replies

Literally no chance for riders, quick 2-0

KEKW new roster that had one good qualifier, not to diss dig, but that roster needs some time in my opinion sooo yeah

2020-03-02 19:29

dignitas 22-25 to GL xd it's not a Minor team right now xd

2020-03-02 19:53

Riders arent either

2020-03-02 21:42

it's going to be fun.

2020-03-02 21:52

Agreed

2020-03-03 08:30

Can't stop me now

2020-03-03 08:56

Cause I’m having

2020-03-03 16:21

4 replies

A good time

2020-03-04 08:58

3 replies

Having a

2020-03-04 13:49

Good time

2020-03-04 14:31

mens))))

2020-03-04 17:17

Atk and Yalla first match up? Seems like they put the best two in first match up

Nasr > Atk rn

2020-03-02 20:32

Atk hasn’t played much though and they have decent players but fair enough

2020-03-02 21:25

Will nip finally make it?

2020-03-02 19:14

"finally" ?

2020-03-02 19:38

nvm was 2 years ago haha

2020-03-02 19:46

Easy for Riders!!!!!

EZ4BIG

#RUNWUBBALUBBADUBDUB #WESMARTWELOYALWEFRIENDLYWEFROMCHINA

where's detona ?

They will compete in the FLASHPOINT Global Qualifier so they can't play both

2020-03-02 19:23

Lol, they will compete in FLASHPOINT instead of a Minor Qualifier ? It must have something to do with v$m's ban...

Yes, you nailed it. V$m won't play minor so its better go to a full lineup tournment rather than try a minor with a complete. They would have problem into the minor with full lineup, now with 4/5 and the -1 is exactly their best player, almost any chance to go throght with only 2 spots.

2020-03-02 22:38

That's sad tho, v$m has such a great potential :\

2020-03-03 00:08

easy for DIG

2020-03-02 19:17

No mibr KEKW

2020-03-02 19:18

Yeah, mibr is already in the Major

2020-03-02 19:39

damnn so we won't see dig vs nip? :/

It's double-elimination

2020-03-02 19:22

stop deleting #1

2020-03-02 19:44

ohh ok thanks

2020-03-02 19:52

where is g2?

2020-03-02 19:19

in the main qualifier aka the challenger stage

oh awesome

go BIG or go home #GEMEINSAM

2020-03-02 19:21

CAMEL RIDERS same majors as SIMPLE

SA: Sharks and Isurus

2020-03-02 19:28

SERIOUSLY DIGNITAS? FFS NICE LUKOOOOOOOOO RIDERS ://////

EU Brackets, left side winners

2020-03-02 19:31

didn't know fRoD was still playing lol

2020-03-02 19:33

he isnt, stand in

2020-03-02 19:47

so, he IS playing

2020-03-02 20:27

hes only played one map so far but yeah

2020-03-02 20:28

but hes their coach its not like hes been actively playing

Fnatic>Smash Dignitas>Moviestar Godsent>Copenhagen MAD>Sprout Heroic>Kova OG>heretics BIG>Nordaving NIP>Apeks

2020-03-02 19:45

EZ4MOVIESTAR dignitas just having fun

Both riders4major

2020-03-02 20:42

#CamelRidersForMajor

2020-03-02 19:57

GL col Oh wait...

2020-03-02 20:00

Tbh I think we should add CIS to EU. They don't need 8 slots

2020-03-02 20:04

Justpassingby with no matches and ranked 95??? what the fuck, some one explain if they're ex sth pls

2020-03-02 20:09

ISURUS Y SHARKS I BELIEVE SKEREE

2020-03-02 20:10

I'm tired of stacked eu closeds and all other closeds being run-shoot clown fiesta. Gaben fix this.

2020-03-02 20:30

EU minor>Cis>Asia>NA

2020-03-02 21:07

Go Riders! Swedish unlucko...

2020-03-02 21:21

Didn't savage retire ? lmao here we go again

2020-03-02 21:33

Dignitas vs fnatic in round two 😢

2020-03-02 21:35

still have a chance to qualify whoever loses.

2020-03-03 02:13

Oh, they do? They're not out?

2020-03-03 12:21

No, the one who loses goes down one bracket and can still qualifiy.

2020-03-04 01:17

fRoD in swole identity Poggers

2020-03-02 21:54

holy shit EU is so stacked right now

2020-03-02 21:57

ez4Wubbalubbadubdub

Gl Riders!

2020-03-02 22:12

pretty cruel for SMASH to be honest..

2020-03-02 23:31

envy !!!!

2020-03-02 23:46

1 spot for SEA 2 spots for East Asia, ESL hello?

2020-03-03 02:09

Rooster stickers plz

2020-03-03 02:38

We want to see real African team in Major finals.

2020-03-03 04:39

Let's go OG! #DreamGreen

2020-03-03 06:20

NBK > Kioshima

2020-03-03 06:21

Waiting for ripPabloescobar sticker

2020-03-03 06:48

Absolute has announced the move to VAGRANT and East Asia qualifier decline. Absolute is No.1 in popularity and ability in Japan. To be honest, the Japanese CS scene is over.They were real professional gamers who live only on tournament prizes.

2020-03-03 07:19

KOVA miracle run))

2020-03-03 12:01

I feel bad for the teams in EU minor...

2020-03-03 14:23

South America wasted spots

2020-03-03 14:31

EZ 4 BIG (top 5 team in the world 2020 after all) EZ 4 Fnatic (former top 5 team in the world) and OG, rest is wide open. NA Qualifier: Furia and Gen G, rest is trash SA Qualifier: These teams get 2 slots and Furia is already in NA what a clown tournament, play Flashpoint instead people CIS: some no name teams no one ever heard of Asia: TYLOO and Wubbalubbadubdub ofc Rest: Not one cars

2020-03-03 17:53

If Dignitas face Fnatic and Dignitas lose, are they knocked out??

2020-03-03 18:55

Nice groups especially in EU

2020-03-04 23:18