NIP, GODSENT secure final IEM Dallas Europe closed qualifier spots

Several notable names including Movistar Riders, Sprout and BIG missed out.

The second European open qualifier for IEM Dallas has concluded with Ninjas in Pyjamas and GODSENT securing their places in the closed qualifier.

Ninjas in Pyjamas required a second bite of the cherry to make it through, having lost 13-16 to 9 Pandas in the quarter-finals of the first open qualifier. This time around they saw off the likes of ECSTATIC, HEET and Iron Branch before finally securing their closed qualifier berth by defeating Monte 2-0. Daniil "⁠headtr1ck⁠" Valitov was in superb form in the deciding series, posting over 100 ADR and a 1.47 rating to send his team to the Dallas closed qualifier.

NIP managed to grab a closed qualifier spot at the second attempt

GODSENT were the second team to make it through, but had a much more labored journey to qualifying: the Swedish side only just scraped past Biskvitki Zakuska and 500 in the round of 16 and quarter-finals.

Their advancement match versus EPIC DUDES also wasn't clean-cut as, despite stealing away their opponent's pick of Overpass, GODSENT proved unable to close out their own pick of Ancient and required an Inferno decider to take things over the line. William "⁠draken⁠" Sundin led the overall effort with a 1.40 rating and 99.8 ADR for his side, with Joel "⁠joel⁠" Holmlund also finding key impact in two maps his team won.

Awaiting in the closed qualifier are Astralis and sYnck, who successfully navigated the first open qualifier. sYnck are of course the most surprising team still in contention for a spot in Dallas; the Estonian squad significantly outperformed their No. 201 ranking at the time by defeating the likes of Tricked to secure a berth in the closed qualifier. Cloud9, fnatic, Spirit and OG were already lined up for the closed qualifier having received direct invites.

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Astralis, sYnck pass first IEM Dallas open qualifier

There are plenty of big-name squads who missed out on a Europe closed qualifier spot altogether, despite trying their hand at the open qualifiers. BIG failed in two attempts, being bested by HEET in the first qualifier and then disappointingly by a mix team in the next. Sprout also flopped twice, losing to Iron Branch in the first instance and then IKLA in the second. Movistar Riders only participated in the first qualifier and were dumped out by Source2 in the round of 16.

The IEM Dallas Europe closed qualifier, set to take place March 31-April 3, will feature the following teams:

Cloud9
Spirit
Astralis
GODSENT

fnatic
OG
Ninjas in Pyjamas
sYnck