Cover Image Courtesy: ESL India
The first day of the second IEM Sydney 2019 - SEA Open Qualifier was quite something as NASR Esports, Team MxB along with two other teams made it all the way to the finals after the day started out with 50 teams participating in the event.
MxB Gaming, Signify CS:GO and the recently announced Global Esports were the three Indian teams participating in the event with only MxB Gaming being the one to survive through the day.
Indian Tussle
Signify CS:GO was expected to have a good run at the qualifier, but they ended up getting eliminated in the second round itself after losing to a Thai team called Team Maple. The best of one match-up took place on Cache where Maple was able to attain victory over the Indian powerhouse by a score of ‘16-12’.
Signify were not in full force though as they were playing with a stand-in. Marzil was not able to play with the team due to health problems because of which the team had to use a substitute in the form of Huy Quang 'HomerX' Dang.
Global Esports, on the other hand, proceded through the first three rounds to face NASR Esports, kings of the Middle East, in the semifinals. The two teams played each other on Inferno with NASR taking them down ‘16-10’, moving on to the finals
The most unexpected Indian team, MxB Gaming, consisting of HellrangeR, Manan, BondF, Karam1L and Mithil went on to reach the finals after taking down the finalist of the first SEA Open Qualifier for IEM Sydney, RRQ in the quarterfinals by a score of ‘16-12’ on Mirage.
With this both the Indian teams which were predicted to qualify further onto the SEA Closed Qualifier were eliminated with the least expected team staying in the competition, as MxB Gaming takes on Team Maple in the finals tomorrow.
The winner of the match-up will be moving on to the IEM Sydney 2019 - SEA Closed Qualifier where they will join the four directly invited teams, B.O.O.T-d[S], TNC Pro Team, Beyond Esports and Lucid Dream along with two more teams qualifying through the First Open Qualifier, Entity Gaming and Alpha Red.
Let’s see if another Indian team will be able to make its way through onto the next stage.