Aleksi “Aleksib” Estonian G2 and ENCE advanced from qualifiers for CS: GO majors in Antwerp

CS: Finnish superstar of the GO video game Aleksi “Alexib” Estonian The team from G2 and the Finnish organization ENCE, represented by the European Championships, advanced to the European qualifiers of the game’s major tournament over the weekend.

In Group B of the qualifying tournament in Bucharest, Romania, 16 teams competed from eight places for CS’s next major tournament, which will be played in May in Antwerp, Belgium. Majors are the biggest and most valuable tournaments in the game, played only once or twice a year.

In the previous major tournament played in Stockholm last autumn, G2 won silver. Virolainen, who was out of the tournament with his previous team at the time, joined the G2 in January this year, along with a Russian super promise. Ilja “m0NESY” Osipovin with.

The G2 secured their major spot by knocking out the Danish Astralis 2-1 on Saturday night in a decisive match. The thriller-like match only ended in overtime on the third map.

Also Eetu “sAw” Sahan Coached by a Finnish organization but without domestic players, ENCE advanced to the majors. On Saturday, the team knocked out Polish Anonymo 2-0 and grabbed a place in the top five of the qualifiers.

G2 and ENCE each won three matches in the qualifiers and lost one. In a tournament played on the Swiss chart, it was enough to finish in 3rd-5th place together with the Swedish team Ninjas in Pajamas. Since there was a place in the qualifiers for the top three straight to the second round of the majors, the mutual superiority of the teams had to be decided in a tiebreaker match.

NIP and ENCE advanced to the tiebreaker based on the rankings of the opponents they faced in the tournament. The Swedes won 2–1 on the maps, so ENCE was 4th in the block and 5th in the G2.

ENCE and G2 will begin their tournament leg in the Challenger phase of the Antwerp Majors on Monday, May 9th. The tournament culminates in the final on May 22nd.

The five who previously represented the Russian Gambit organization, who played in the qualifiers as Players, also took part in the major qualifiers. The PGL, which hosts the major tournament, banned the team from participating in the tournament under the name of Gambit because of the war started by Russia in Ukraine. The main owner of MTS, the telecom operator that owns Gambit, is an oligarch Vladimir Yevtushenkov belongs Vladimir Putin but has not yet been subject to international sanctions.

U.S. Cloud9 announced on Sunday that it had acquired Gambit’s CS: GO team and also a major spot acquired by the players. In addition to the players, the team manager, coach, and analyst will also move to the payrolls of the U.S. organization.