Image via SiegeGG
The North American Open Qualifier No. 1 begins on Dec. 4 and ends on Dec. 5.
The NA Qualifier has given us great moments in the past. Last year, Parabellum fought their way through the bracket to take the SI spot over more tenured teams like beastcoast and RentFree. Parabellum put on a show at the Six Invitational as well, they came in with low expectations and knocked G2 out of the tournament in the first round of the playoff phase.
The format for the open Qualifiers will be a best of one, single elimination bracket with a best of three for the semi finals and grand final. One team from each open Qualifier will qualify for the second phase.
TSM and Mirage have been invited to the closed qualifier, and will not be participating in the open qualifier.
This article will be updated as results come in.
Here are the results from the open bracket:
Round of 64
- Elo Reducers 8-6 Lyra Esports
- Wichita Wolves 7-4 bruhcoast: Wichita Wolves take out bruhcoast (which is beastcoast + "surf") in a match that was somehow placed in the first round. Had the bracket been constructed in another fashion, this match would've been in much later rounds.
- Didnt ask 7-2 Orgless lol
- Parabellum 7-0 First Rounded
- 2F 7-0 Sinai Village
- Doho Gamin 7-5 ForkU
- Nokturns 7-0 Goonies Never Say Die
- Unk esports 0-7 Investigation Files
- Old Dominion University 2-7 Gasher's Goons
Every other team had a bye, and went straight into the Round of 32.
Round of 32
- GuGu Dolls 7-0 Santa Barbara Vaqueros
- Arial Arise 7-1 Team Salmon
- FPL Queens 7-1 ECLETIQ: Featuring Adam "Drip" Kolodkin and Spencer "slashug" Oliver, FPL Queens are a real threat to upset Astralis in the next round.
- Astralis 7-1 Ionic
- KrysosR6 7-4 Minnesota Nice Gang
- Wichita Wolves 7-1 Elo Reducers
- Gasher's Goons 1-0 Imagine Draggin
- Team Hallway 7-5 Misfit Esports
- Outlast 7-1 Baesar Shoulders
- 1shot 7-2 Karn and co.
- Agony Esports 7-1 Pugless
- TEC Stallions 7-3 JFX Esports
- Plat 3 Platoon 8-7 OFS
- iF 8-7 Nokturns
- 2F 8-6 Doho Gamin
- Parabellum 7-3 Didnt ask
Round of 16
- 1shot 7-1 TEC Stallions
- FPL Queens 8-7 Astralis: FPL Queens unseated Astralis in overtime following a monster performance from slashug. This map was arguably the closest and most impactful game of the day. Astralis has one more chance to qualify for SI.
- Agony Esports 7-0 Team Hallway
- GuGu Dolls 7-2 Plat 3 Platoon
- Gasher's Goons 7-1 KrysosR6
- 2F 7-0 iF
- Arial Arise 7-3 Outlast
- Parabellum 7-5 Wichita Wolves: Last year's SI NA Qualifier victors are showing that they've lost few steps, if any, across the year. Another solid performance from Parabellum, another step towards SI.
Quarterfinals
- 1shot 7-1 GuGu Dolls
- FPL Queens 7-0 Gasher's Goons: FPL Queens are absolutely burning through the competition. This patchwork team filled with former professional players are looking like one of the best teams in the Qualifier.
- Arial Arise 8-7 Agony Esports
- 2F 5-7 Parabellum
Semifinals
- FPL Queens 1-2 Parabellum
FPL Queens raced out to a 3-0 start on Bank that Parabellum couldn't get over. Eventually, FPL Queens won 7-4, and move one step closer to a previously-improbable qualification for the Six Invitational 2022.
Parabellum struck back on Oregon, though, and tied the series up 1-1. They went on to end FPL Queens' Cinderella run in the first qualifier with a dominating 7-1 final map on Clubhouse.
- Arial Arise 1-2 1shot
1shot, a very recently formed NACL roster, took the next step towards SI qualification with a map one victory over their NACL brethern Arial Arise. Arial Arise punched right back on map 2, Clubhouse, and tied the series up 1-1. However, the day was 1shot's in the end, as they dominated Bank to punch their ticket to the grand final.
Grand final
- Parabellum 2-1 1shot
Parabellum and 1shot have dueled to a draw, and will head to a final map in the series.
Parabellum raced out to a 5-1 lead on their Villa attacking half, and never relinquished their lead. They advance to the Closed Qualifier to face TSM, Mirage, and the winner of Open Qualifier No. 2.