With only three spots for North American teams available in DreamHack’s$250,000 Malmo tournament, at least one big name was going to get knocked out of contention by their top regional rivals. In the end, it was Cloud9 who failed to make a mark.
Sixteen top North American sides battled it out for the three spots in Malmo with Team Liquid, Counter Logic Gaming, Tempo Storm and Cloud9 showing dominance to make up the final four of the qualifier.
Tempo Storm and Liquid secured the top two spots defeating Cloud9 and CLG respectively, a second win over Cloud9 in the space of a week for Tempo Storm’s Brazilian lineup.
This left Cloud9 and CLG to fight it out for the final spot. CLG won the match 2-0 in relatively comfortable fashion, including a 16-3 win on Cobblestone in the second game of the series.
Team SoloMid also posted disappointing results. The team’s new North American lineup, picked up after the previous Danish side left to become Astralis, have thus far failed to impress and lost in the first round to fellow strugglers Renegades. Echo Fox also suffered a quick exit, losing to Tempo Storm in the first round.
The three qualified teams will join another Brazilian side Luminosity Gaming in representing the Americas at the event in April. The four teams will face tough competition from the best European sides including Astralis, Fnatic, EnVyUs and Na`Vi.
