OpTic Gaming qualify for ESL New York over Cloud9

OpTic Gaming secured the final spot in the ESL New York lineup, defeating Cloud9 last night to win the American qualifier.

After defeating NRG eSports and the highly touted Immortals, OpTic beat Cloud9 2-1 in the final to book their place in the $250,000 tournament this weekend.

The win came just a few hours after the team officially confirmed the departure of Damian “daps” Steele. Daps had been dropped from the lineup two weeks ago, with OpTic reinstating Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz. Stanislaw was dropped in August when the team acquired Tarik “tarik” Celik.

Daps had been acting as coach for the team for the past few weeks, but according to the player “it became clear that it would just be best to part ways rather than trying to stay with the team.”

Cloud9 managed to turn back Counter Logic Gaming in the first round of the qualifier, before taking a 2-0 win over Team SoloMid on Sunday to reach the final.

Cloud9 have been enjoying a period of strong form, reaching the final of the DreamHack Bucharest and Northern Arena tournament and finishing in the top four at StarLadder. But after a pair of close games, 16-14 for OpTic and 16-13 for Cloud9, OpTic took control of the match in the final map. A 9-6 CT side on Cobblestone gave them the lead coming out of the first half, but a commanding performance on the terrorist side saw the team take seven straight rounds to close out the half in quick fashion.

OpTic advance to this weekend’s tournament at the Barclays Center to meet European qualifier Astralis and invited sides SK Gaming, Virtus Pro, Natus Vincere, Team Liquid, G2 Esports, and Fnatic.