Knocked into the lower bracket after the opening round HellRaisers went on an incredible comeback spree to defeat Na'Vi and secure qualification for Red Bull's Battle Grounds tournament in Santa Monica.
The Red Bull Battle Grounds CIS qualifier has come to a close and HellRaisers were able to impressively defeat all three opponents through the lower bracket to become the third team to qualify for the LAN finals. HellRaisers join MY and Invictus Gaming as the first three teams to qualify with only the European and American teams left to find. HellRaisers journey through the qualifiers started against Team Empire in the opening round, which saw the team struggle to deal with a dominating Lina and Juggernaut who quickly sent them down into the lower bracket after only 31 minutes. Brought down in a best-of-one, but HellRaisers were ready to fight on.
Placed into the lower bracket against the new Virtus Pro roster, HellRaisers were almost always in control of their opponent and broke into their base after 35 minutes to force the 'GG' call after 47 minutes. Set up with a rematch against Team Empire following their loss to a rejuvenated Natus Vincere, HellRaisers forced revenge on their earlier defeat by dominating their opponent into a 31 minute victory, only 11 seconds away from the in-game time in their first round loss. Their impressive streak had brought them back out of the lower bracket and into the final against Natus Vincere, but HellRaisers dropped the opening game of their best-of-three match in a swift 29 minute defeat to Daniel 'Dendi' Ishutin's dominating Shadow Fiend.
With defeat one game away, HellRaisers had to rediscover their form against their previous opponents. It started with a hard fought victory against a draft that featured a faltering performance from Ivan 'ArtStyle' Antonov's Chen, a role he had been in a dominating form against Team Empire earlier in the tournament. He was only able to secure five assists and being killed five times by Andrey 'Afoninje' Afonin's Sniper alone. Despite this it was an evenly contested game but HellRaisers were able to even out the score after forcing an eventual 42 minute 'GG' call. The final game was an hour long dogfight between the two teams. Natus Vincere had lead on the experience graph until after the 40 minute mark and had managed to take a tier 4 tower, but it was a push down middle with the Aegis on Afoninje's Medusa that allowed HellRaisers to take down the ancient and secure their impressive journey to qualification for the main event.
Elsewhere in the competition ROOT Gaming managed to reach the main American qualifier after battling through two separate pre-qualifiers and defeating Wheel Whreck While Whistling, Void Boys and Union Gaming among others. They now take their place and prepare to compete against Team Tinker, Summoner's Rift and Not Today in what is expected to begin on April 28th.
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