ESL One: Road to Rio 2020 Qualification update: NA and SA

The qualification 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. We bring you the latest updates on the qualification of the South American and the North American region.

1. South America: 22nd-26th April

3 Brazilian and 1 team from Argentina took part in the SA qualifiers. These were:- BOOM Esports, Isurus Gaming, Imperial Sportsbet, RED Canids Kalunga. BOOM Esports topped the group winning all three games, while Isurus placed second, Imperial third and RED Canids last.

RED Canids were eliminated and BOOM qualified directly for the grand finals. Isurus and Imperial were involved in tight qualification match to face BOOM in the final. Isurus came out on top winning the series to set up a grand final clash with BOOM.

With BOOM showing great form in all their matches Isurus needed to up their game by a notch to have a chance at defeating them. They did start off strongly in the first map leading 11-4 on Mirage. But BOOM clawed back to take the map in double overtime winning 22-19. With the opponents map pick in their bag, BOOM stream rolled over Isurus on their map pick, Nuke. they defeated them 16-6 to take home 1600 points while Isurus managed to gain 1500 points on the Road to Rio.

2. North America- 22nd April-10th May

The North American region too had 12 teams participating with 6 teams in each group. Evil Geniuses and Team Liquid, the top two NA teams were placed in Group A and B respectively.

With more teams shifting their base to North America and only 6 spots for grabs, some big teams were set to loose out on qualifying. Evil Geniuses and MiBR were those casualties. While MiBR bowed out only due to a inferior head to head record, EG were off the pace and didn’t look composed all event and could muster only win.

The biggest talking point however was the disqualification of Team Orgless who disbanded their roster in between the qualifying event announcing they were moving to Valorant.

Furia Esports, the new Brazilian powerhouse were the best team on show in the round robin stage winning all five of their matches. Gen.G Esports topped the other group joining Furia for a direct spot in the semi-finals.

100 Thieves, Cloud9, Team Liquid and the surprise package Team Envy were the other four teams to qualify for the playoffs. Triumph, Bad News Bears and Yeah Gaming were the teams which were eliminated along with MiBR and EG.

Cloud9 faced off against Team Envy in the first quarterfinal winning 2-1, while Liquid brushed off 100 Thieves 2-0 to enter the semi-finals. In the semi-finals Cloud9 matched up against Gen.G in a B03 series while Liquid faced Furia.

Gen.G were on top form against Cloud9 with “daps” and “autimatic” coming out all guns blazing against their former employees. They won the series 2-1 in which “autimatic” lead the fragging charts with 76 kills.

In the other semi-final Liquid were looking to avenge their group stage loss to Furia but as it turns out Furia were too hot to handle for the NA squad. The match was close in the first map on Overpass where Furia edged out winning 16-14. The second map was Vertigo, Furia’s pick. With new map changes made Liquid were caught off guard with some of Furia’s aggressive plays and lost 16-12.

The 5th place match between Envy and 100 Thieves was won by Envy 2-1 rounding off an impressive campaign for the “Nifty” lead squad. The 3rd place match between Liquid and Cloud9 was unexpectedly won by Cloud9 with Liquid faltering in the final stages of the map, losing 2-1.

The grand final between Furia and Gen.G was expected to deliver all three maps and it sure did. Gen.G won their map pick of Train winning comfortably 16-6. Furia on their map pick Vertigo also looked comfortable and trouble Gen.G with some fast rounds and their aggressive style. They managed to close out the match with “art” pulling of an ace in the final round to win 16-12. “yuuirh” and “KSCERATO” were on top form for the Brazilians where as all members of the Gen.G squad were contributing equally for their side.

The final map began with Furia taking a lead in the first quarter after which Gen.G managed to turn the tide in their favor. Some cool-head clutches by “koosta” and “daps” helped Gen.G win the map 16-9.

Gen.G’s victory has given them a solid base in their quest to qualify for the major while EG and MiBR will have to sort out their issues to have a smoother way on the Road to Rio. Specially for MiBR, who would be big loss for the event as a whole if the fail to qualify for the major in their home country.

While Furia have started brightly on their Road to Rio, MiBR will have to do something to get the results going.

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 and hence the Road to Rio qualifying stage. 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 $60,000 for the NA region and $10,000 for the SA region. To read more about this, click here.

To get the latest updates on the Asian and Oceania qualifiers, click here.

To get the latest updates on the CIS and European qualifiers, click here.