A surprising change of tidings at the opening qualifiers of the Esports World Cup CS2 saw the mighty HEROIC and Team Falcons sent packing to the sideline by opponents who are no-name teams. The premature eliminations only leave one squad a chance to compete at the Counter-Strike 2 tournament which is set to take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia this summer.
European champions were overlooked by subalterns.
Sung to top the table to be one of the possible teams to get a European token, HEROIC met Brazylijski Luz in the round of 32. The Polish squad proved to be a threat to their Danish adversaries which made them look like helpless candidates with the final result 13-11 in the best-of-one format.
Falcons also weren’t immune to such sad feelings, losing in a close match 13-11 to RUBY. Nevertheless, huge amounts of money were invested in building a team of EU that now is a combination of many nationalities, but, unfortunately, at the end of the season, these dreams came to nothing.
Open bracket volatility
As the open qualifier played a best-of-one series until the first stage of the tournament, it brought the kind of haphazard and unpredictable results that led to the ok-thanes being victorious in the big tournaments.
The single-elimination format, combined with the swift ejection from the field without the double-elimination safety net, the super organismic parameters of professional Counter-Strike play surrounding the ultra-high stakes of the World Cup main event, make it possible for even the most notorious teams to miscalculate a timing of a game, or make an unfair defensive move, quickly leading them to be eliminated from the competition
Paths to qualification outlined
Hosted in Riyadh, the CS2 portion of the Esports World Cup will feature 15 teams from around the globe, with various avenues to earn an invitation: Hosted in Riyadh, the CS2 portion of the Esports World Cup will feature 15 teams from around the globe, with various avenues to earn an invitation:
Tickets were directly sent to the recent ESL One IPL Copenhagen winners Team Spirit and Na’Vi, who are also top-ranked ESL World groups, in addition to elite squads such as FaZe Clan, Complexity, FURIA, G2, Vitality, MOUZ, and Virtus.pro.
Like this, one team for the region (Europa, the Americas, South America, Oceania, Asia, Middle East) will move on to the main tournament through the open and closed qualifiers.
The path to a place in the play-offs of the last European teams has been cleared, as HEROIC and FALZEN Energy exited the race and now the teams from Brazil and Russia, Brazylijski Luz and RUBY advance to play against NIP and Aurora at 6 pm CET.
Esports’ unpredictable landscape
The unexpected gongs of HEROIC and Team Falcons are a very clear symbol of the unwinnable, tough conditions of the pro-Counter-Strike league. It is not uncommon that the best-touted talents falter on any given day as the unknown and emerging stars find their voice and steal the show.
Every tournament, even in the nihilistic esports universe, has a higher level of skill and competition. Open qualifiers weren’t simply extra special in their picture-perfect ways; they supplied the invitation for nonstop madness, thus fans should get prepared for further spills and thrills when teams are clashing for CS2’s most lucrative championships.
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