The first qualification round for ESL One: Road to Rio 2020 began over 3 weeks ago with teams competing for ranking points in order to in order to establish a qualification order.
The qualification process is split among 6 different regions with all the top teams participating. With playoffs starting off from today, we bring you the results after today’s day of play.
1. Virtus.Pro vs Nemiga Gaming
With no Na’Vi in the playoffs, Virtus.Pro needed to make the playoffs count to help them solidify their position and not make it too complicate for the next qualification stages for Road to Rio.
Nemiga Gaming were their opponents today who were looking to book a place in the semis against Team Spirit. The match started with Nemiga picking Mirage whereas VP picked Inferno and Vertigo was left as the decider.
VP started Mirage on the CT side looking to shut down their opponents whenever a mistake was made. They lead 8-4 to start off strong but Nemiga added three late rounds to end the first half on a competitive score. Nemiga showed why they picked Mirage as the completely shut down VP allowing them to win just 2 rounds to take the map 16-10.
The second map on Inferno was a brawl with both team playing some very good counter strike. VP started the map on T and won the half with a slender lead on 1 round. But Nemiga weren’t going down without a fight. They forced an overtime to have a chance at winning 2-0 against VP. But VP fought back to take the victory in OT to win 19-17.
It was “Jame” who lead the scoring charts with 26 kills on the VP side with “lollipop21k” dropping 28 kills for Nemiga.
The series moved to Vertigo to lock in the first semifinal against Team Spirit. VP for the third time in the series lead after the first half, but the lead was substantial this time around with the score being 11-4. Nemiga needed to mount a comeback but VP were too prepared for the plays presented to them. They managed to win 16-6 and end Nemiga’s journey in the first qualification stage on Road to Rio.
“AdreN” managed mow down his opponents 63 times to end as the series highest fragger.
2. Faze Clan vs Ninjas in Pyjamas
The action then moved to the upper bracket playoffs where Faze Clan were up against the Ninjas in Pyjamas. Both these teams had shown massive improvements in the group stage so this was expected to deliver a full fledged 3 map series.
NiP picked Overpass as their map choice, Faze went in with Mirage and Train was selected as the decider.
Overpass was a map which NiP had excelled on in the group stages so it was only logical to pick it. The first half was a back and forth affair with Faze edging with a 8:7 lead. Once, NiP shifted to the defensive side of things and the set ups were put into effect, Faze crumbled winning just a solitary round to lose 9:16. Though “NiKo” was the server leader with 21 kills, he didn’t receive much support from his team mates.
Mirage like Overpass was Faze’s safe pick with NiP not performing upto potential on the map. Faze started on the T side but couldn’t overpower NiP much and ended the half with a 6:9 deficit. Now following similar lines of Overpass, Once Faze were on the CT side they started to take the game into their own hands and reached map point with the score at 15:11.
But “plopski” then came online to bring back NiP and take the game to overtime.Faze were left wondering with the same problem of not able to close out maps after taking substanstial leads. OT was an absolute chaos with NiP doing what Faze did in regulation time. They reached map and series point first only to let Faze tie the score and take the game into double OT.
The second over time followed the same pattern with NiP reaching series point first to again allow Faze to tie and proceed to a triple overtime. Faze then successfully managed to close the map with a scoreline of 25-22. “NiKo” and “coldzera” were back at their best with “rain” providing able support.
The final map to be played on Train was again a roller-coaster with neither team refusing to bow down. Faze on the T side particularly targeted the ‘B’ site quite a lot and ended the half with a respectable 9:6 scoreline.
With Faze shifting to the more favorable side, many expected to close the match out. But NiP were not giving up they won a round here and there to break the CT economy a few times. They again reached series point first with the score at 15:14. They again had a chance to claim the series with them being a 3 v 2 after plant scenario. But some excellent clutch play from “broky” took the game to a 4 OT for the series.
With the game already turning into a marathon, both the sides wanted the game to end early as soon as possible. Faze took the initiative first winning 2 rounds on CT side and then 2 on the T side to take the map 19-16 and series 2-1. They remain undefeated on the Road to Rio while NiP will now face Team Vitality in the lower bracket.
Faze move to the upper bracket finals and continue the impressive showing on Road to Rio qualifier.
Note:- The Rio major was scheduled to take place in May 2020 but due to the ongoing pandemic the major was shifted to November 2020. The prize pool of first Major will be added to the November Major. ESL on its part have decided to host three qualification rounds in order for teams to remain at their peak. Each qualifying stage will have Regional Major Points(RMR) which will be added to determine the qualification order. Each qualifying stage will have a prize pool of $255,000 divided across the six regions. To read more about this, click here.
To see how the first major was played out, click here.
