The NA Preliminaries to find out what teams from North America will advance to the group stages of Season Two of ELEAGUE’s Counter Strike Global Offensive tournament has concluded. We now know the teams that will be representing North America. The teams that have made it are OpTiC Gaming, Immortals, SK Gaming, and Echo Fox.
The NA Preliminaries began on Sept. 14 when 16 teams squared off against each other, leaving only the winners behind for some day two action. Afer the first day of play the only remaining teams were SK, NRG, Team Liquid, Echo Fox, OpTic Gaming, Renegades, Immortals and TeM SoloMid. All eight of these teams then faced off against each other on day two to determine who would qualify for Season Two.
In the ELEAGUE Arena for ELEAGUE Season 2. pic.twitter.com/x7VnieyLA8
— ELEAGUE (@EL) September 15, 2016
The first match of day two was Immortals facing off against TSM. Immortals had an impressive showing as they swept TSM with a 2-0 series. The games went with a 16-14 victory on Mirage and a 16-10 victory on Cobble.
After a hard fought 2-0 win for @Immortals, our @BWWings Blazin’ Hot Player of the Match is @IMTLucas1 pic.twitter.com/w1eQBwKpLg
— ELEAGUE (@EL) September 15, 2016
The second match of the night saw NRG facing off against SK. SK dominated this matchup with a 2-0 sweep as well, winning both of their games by impressive margins. The scores were 16-8 victory on Dust 2 and a 16-7 victory on Overpass. This comes as no surprise considering SK’s past.
Moving on, we had Liquid and Echo Fox in what was a closer series than the aforementioned ones. This series went 2-1 to Echo Fox. The first game was on Mirage, where things looked to be pretty close. Liquid only had an 8-7 lead until they pulled it together after half and ended up winning it 16-11. The second game was a different story. This time on Nuke, Echo Fox dominated this map pulling a huge 11-4 lead and then winning the game 16-9. The final game of the series is where things got really exciting. Team Liquid pulled ahead with a demanding 12-4 lead over Echo Fox. Echo Fox then somehow managed to come back and win the game with a final score of 16-13 to move on.
.@echofoxgg wins a close one to advance to the Group Stage of #ELEAGUE Season 2! pic.twitter.com/rnLlgl2yMp
— ELEAGUE (@EL) September 15, 2016
The final series of the night was OpTic Gaming versus Renegades. Even though OpTic pulled off the 2-0 sweep, the games were pretty close. OpTic had a 16-13 victory on Cache and a 16-13 comeback win on Dust 2 to secure them the final spot in the next season of ELEAGUE.
After a 2-0 win over Renegades, <a href="https://twitter.com/noshirttv”>@noshirttv (Tarik) earns the title of @BWWings Blazin’ Hot Player of the Match pic.twitter.com/RYaKhWKIl8
— ELEAGUE (@EL) September 16, 2016
All of these teams can take some time to relax knowing they made it to the group stages of ELEAGUE, but of course will still need to practice to ensure they do well. The group stages have yet to be announced for this following season.
Who would you like to see do well out of this group of teams? Let us know by commenting below or tweeting us @GAMURScom.
