LATAM SI 2022 Qualifier Day 1: Akave Esports and Black Dragons survive to group stage, South America sent home

_{Image via Ubisoft}

The chaos experienced in Brazil two weeks ago was solved by flying the six LATAM SI 2022 Closed Qualifiers participants to Sweden. Today, four teams played in a round-robin group stage for the two remaining spots in the final bracket, as Fenix Esports and MIBR awaited for the opposition.

Akave Esports quickly arose as the main threat of the group stage, with the Mexico-Brazil combination defeating Malvinas on overtime and Black Dragons on regulation. With five points in its pocket, the ex-Atheris roster had a foot-and-a-half in the final bracket.

Meanwhile, Black Dragons secured the second spot after defeating the South American rosters. Furious Gaming was a hard bone to crack, as the Argentinians were 5-3 ahead at some point in the match. However, the Brazilians would eventually bounce back and win four rounds in a row as Vinícius “live” Santos led his team with a 1.51 SiegeGG rating – and an Ace in the eleventh round.

Black Dragons’ third game of the day was a 7-3 victory over Malvinas Gaming, with the Argentinians not being able to pull out any of their four attacks. 

The first do-or-die match of the day was the Argentinian derby between Malvinas and Furious. Just as it happened in Coastline against Black Dragons, Furious lost the last four rounds, which gave their opponents a regulation win.

Malvinas Gaming had various issues when attacking, with the wunderkind Richard “blk” Rodríguez struggling a lot when using Iana. His fragging capabilities, which are pivotal for Malvinas Gaming, were considerably reduced when the team was on the offensive side. The Paraguayan looked uncomfortable, which ended up with him changing to operators like Finka, Zofia, and even Ash.

Meanwhile, Furious Gaming’s problem was more related to its mentality and experience in these events. Both Malvinas and 9z Team represented South America at the three editions of the Copa Elite Six played last year, so Furious Gaming not having this experience could explain the comebacks done by Black Dragons and Malvinas against them. Pressure handling has been what slowly killed the South American roster, who started its matches with a bang but ended them with a whimper.

Furious Gaming wouldn’t leave the tournament empty handed though as the day would end with a 7-3 victory for the South American roster over Akave Esports.

With these results, tomorrow’s first match will be played at 2 pm CET and will see MIBR facing Akave Esports. Later on, at 5 pm CET, Fenix Esports will be making its debut in the competition against Black Dragons.