Image: Ubisoft/Kirill Bashkirov
CYCLOPS athlete gaming have booked their place at the upcoming Six Jönköping Major after they secured one point against SANDBOX Gaming today and REJECT failed to beat FAV gaming in regulation time.
This marks a return to international play for the Japanese team, after they missed out on the Berlin Major in Stage 2. They will join TSM FTX, Spacestation Gaming, Soniqs, and Mirage there and are the first team outside of NA to qualify.
CAG have been in lethal form in APAC North so far this stage and are at the top of the table with 15 points. Their closest result this stage prior to their loss against SANDBOX was an 8-6 win over REJECT, having cleaved through DWG KIA in 7-3 fashion.
Prior to today, Sho "BlackRay" Hasegawa was the best player in APAC North this stage, with a league-best SiegeGG Rating of 1.45 and a league-best K-D of +34 before his match against SANDBOX. The closest player to him had been his teammate, Taiyo "Ayagator" Hirayama, who was second in both categories at a 1.34 Rating and +25 K-D.
Ayagator had also been the most impactful player, with a KOST of 85 percent.
The Japanese team have not made a player change since Dec. 2019 and are both hugely experienced and practiced together. They have attended five international events together (except Ayagator, who was not with the team for the first), but were disappointing at the Charlotte Major in May this year.
In Charlotte, their most recent international event, CAG crashed out in last place in their group, with just one win and three points to their name. They have also never reached the playoffs at an international event before, having been closest at the Mexico Major in 2021, and will need a better performance than ever before next month.