Historically, Europe has always been a very strong region with many powerful countries and a tradition in CS such as Sweden, Denmark, France,… Therefore, the Minor for this region always features many strong teams and takes place in a highly competitive and intense manner.
This year’s closed qualifier for the European Minor was no exception, as among the 16 teams participating, we could see the presence of very strong names like OG, Fnatic, Complexity, NiP, Dignitas,…
Among them, the most notable case is Complexity, as they are the team that has failed to qualify in the open qualifier three times (including 2 times being eliminated right in the semifinals), however, MAD Lions’ last-minute withdrawal unexpectedly granted Complexity the final ticket.
Despite not being well-prepared and suffering from jetlag after moving to Europe, the members of Complexity did not waste this “gift from heaven” opportunity as they excellently defeated Sprout and GODSENT with a score of 2-0 to qualify for the Minor at the end of April. Heretics and 2 other teams sharing the same nationality, NiP and Fnatic, also achieved a 2-0 record to secure their spots in the top 4.
The second day of competition (lower bracket) is the last chance for the remaining teams to secure their tickets to the Minor, including big names like Dignitas, OG, and BIG.
Although starting smoothly with a 2-0 victory over KOVA, Aleksib and his teammates unexpectedly fell to GODSENT with a score of 1-2 in a thrilling match (Train 3-16, Dust 2 22-20, and Nuke 14-16), ending all hopes of participating in the ESL One Rio Major in May.
Meanwhile, Copenhagen Flames (currently ranked 35th on the reputable HLTV rankings) had a spectacular upset against their countrymen Heroic (#14) with a convincing 2-0 victory, thus excellently securing a ticket to the Minor. Another notable name is Movistar Riders, as they successfully defeated BIG, a strong representative from the German CS scene, with a score of 2-1, becoming the first team from Spain to participate in the Minor.
The final ticket to the Minor went to Dignitas (a team consisting of Swedish legends such as f0rest, GeT_RiGhT, friberg,…) as they excellently defeated the Nordic representative Nordavind 2-1. This is an outstanding achievement for GeT_RiGhT and his teammates, as just the day before they had unfortunately lost to their fellow countrymen Fnatic with a score of 1-2, although young talent hallzerk had an outstanding game with a K/D of 75-65 and a rating of 1.23.
The European Minor will officially take place from April 26 to May 2 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, along with the Minors from other regions. The top 10 teams from the Minors will secure a ticket to the New Challengers stage of the ESL One Rio Major, along with 6 Returning Challengers from last year’s Berlin StarLadder Major.