The Asia and Americas Minors officially ended today and two underdogs are en route to their first Valve Major tournament.
Grayhound Gaming of Australia and Furia Esports of Brazil sealed their rightful spots at IEM Katowice today by placing second in their regional Minor tournaments. Grayhound took second place at the Asia Minor, while Furia did the same in the Americas Minor.
Related: NRG Esports and Renegades qualify for the IEM Katowice Major
Asia Minor
Decider match
Grayhound Gaming vs. ViCi Gaming
- ViCi won Overpass 16-6
- Grayhound won Mirage 16-6
- Grayhound won Dust II 16-13
After narrowly losing to Renegades in three maps yesterday, Grayhound redeemed themselves in the final decider match of the Asia Minor vs. ViCi Gaming. Both teams traded out map picks on Overpass and Mirage, and the match came down to map three Dust II. ViCi led at half 9-6, won the pistol,, and then seemed to be on par to steal the qualifier spot from Grayhound. But the Australian side pulled off a comeback from 6-12 to 16-13 on their CT side to close out the series.
Americas Minor
Decider match
Furia Esports vs. Team Envy
- Furia won Overpass 16-2
- Furia won Cache 16-11
The Furia vs. Envy decider, on the other hand, was a much more one-sided contest. Furia crushed Finn “karrigan” Andersen and crew on Overpass. During Cache, Envy gave up an 11-6 lead to the Brazilian offense, giving them 10 rounds in a row and the 2-0 series sweep.
Grayhound and Furia’s qualification for the Katowice Major are monumental firsts for both small organizations, as well as for the players. They’ll get their names etched into the game’s history through the stickers, and one particular sticker from Grayhound’s will probably be the priciest out of them all—that of Oliver “DickStacy” Tierney. DickStacy promised fans that his player autograph sticker will allow “dicks on the guns,” and he also started a hashtag called “#DicksUp.”
The IEM Katowice Major qualifiers will end tomorrow with the Third Place Play-In, where the third-place teams from each Minor will fight for the final two spots in the Major event. North (Europe), Winstrike (CIS), ViCi (Asia), and Team Envy (Americas) are all that remain in the final qualifier of IEM Katowice.
When two of the four teams qualify for the Major, there will be a total of 10 squads that qualified through the Minor Championships. So far, ENCE Esports, NRG Esports, AVANGAR, Renegades, Team Vitality, Team Spirit, Furia, and Grayhound have earned their spots in Katowice next month.
