The European division of the ESL One New York qualifiers is in full swing and has now seen the first team advance to the LAN finals. Cloud 9 has taken down Alliance 2-0 and will follow Evil Geniuses, Na'Vi.US and Vici Gaming in New York. Today, Natus Vincere and Team Secret will play out the 5th team to qualify for the event.
Cloud 9 managed to take down Alliance 2-0 in the winner's bracket semi-finals of the ESL One qualifier and has thus secured a ticket to New York this October. The team around captain Jacky 'EternalEnvy' Mao faced issues caused by DDoS attacks but still managed to pull through and take their Swedish adversaries down in a convincing fashion. Alliance will have another shot at a slot by fighting their way through the loser's bracket.
Another ticket to New York will be played out today as Ukrainian powerhouse Natus Vincere and the newly formed Team Secret will battle it out in another bo3. It will be the first encounter between Clement 'Puppey' Ivanov and his former teammates on official ground. Team Secret had a rocky start into the new season but has managed to climb back up again, winning their last nine official matches. Na'Vi on the other hand had a great start, going 7-1 in StarLadder. However, the team has had inconsistent performances ever since, dropping games here and there, but still maintaining 9th in the GosuRankings. The match will kick-off at 21.00 CEST.
Three other slots have already been decided prior to the Cloud9 and Alliance match. Evil Geniuses and Na'Vi.us secured themselves two spots on Sunday night, not breaking a sweat against their North-American adversaries. The North-American qualifiers still holds a third slot open though and the action is set to continue this week.
The last spot for New York has been secured by Vici Gaming, who continued their dominance in the Chinese scene by not dropping a single map in the playoffs.