The CIS regional open qualifiers for the first Major of 2020 – ESL One Rio, concluded over the weekend. Some well-known names that entered the open qualification went out early, but there was still no shortage of familiar names among those who made it to the closed qualifier.
Which teams remain in ESL One Rio
The first open qualifier in CIS followed some logic as firm favorites Nemiga Gaming breezed through to the closed qualifier, along with another respectable team – ESPADA. Veteran Sergey "starix" Ischuk’s 1win squad advanced via open qualifier No. 2, which also saw Team Unique through.
Another former Natus Vincere player will be playing for a Major spot. Denis “seized” Kostin and fbgaming were close to elimination in the final Bo1 in qualifier No. 3 but after scraping the OT win they were vicious in the Bo3 to secure their place in the next stage. The second team to advance from this qualifier was EL'quvet.
The fourth and final open qualifier proved to be the undoing of some organizations we’ve grown to know through the years and from whom we’d expect better. AVANGAR, Quantum Bellator Fire and DreamEaters all failed to even break into the quarter-finals, leaving room for teams such as SpeedRunners and S-Gaming to advance in their stead.
The ESL One Rio CIS closed qualifier
With the conclusion of the open qualification process, the full 16-team list for the CIS closed qualifier looks like this:
- forZe
- Team Spirit
- Hard Legion Esports
- Gambit Youngsters
- Syman Gaming
- pro100
- HellRaisers
- Winstrike Team
- Nemiga Gaming
- ESPADA
- Team Unique
- 1win
- fbgaming
- EL'quvet
- SpeedRunners
- S-Gaming
The closed qualifier will be played online on March 5-6. The top eight teams will advance to the ESL One Rio CIS Minor.
