Despite two losses today, North American Rejects still managed to finish with a tied first place together with Team Liquid. They will lead the four teams heading into the Americas qualifiers playoffs which will start tomorrow.
North American Rejects was not able to follow their spotless performance yesterday, dropping their first and last of six matches today. But their eight-win finish was already enough to warrant them a slot in the playoffs as it had them in a tied first-place position with Team Liquid. TL had another 4-1 finish in the second qualifier day.
The final two teams to move on into the qualifiers was settled via tiebreakers, as three teams finished with six points apiece. Sneaky Nyx Assassin had inconsistent games, defeating hot teams NAR and UG, but losing to eHug and a slumping Top5. eHug was able to climb up after a strong 4-1 day, while Union Gaming surprisingly rose after winning their last two games - defeating both group leaders in NAR and Team Liquid.
Unfortunately, Team Liquid's last game against Union Gaming was the center of attraction as fans and esports personalities alike criticised TL heavily for their "unorthodox" and "clownish" plays going into such an important qualifier. We witnessed TL playing this game casually as they were guranteed a top two finish with DeMoN mid on Kunkka, TC on Queen on Pain and BuLba on Shadow Demon. Despite the game being in TL's favour, countless mistakes and clutch pick-offs cost them the game eventually and uG went on to register a win.
SNA was the first team to qualify from the tiebreakers as they defeated both eHug and Union Gaming. The Peruvian team pulled through in the end, defeating the American team in a very exctiing last match of the qualifiers .
With that, the 11-team Americas qualifier will be heading into its double-elimination, four-team playoffs. Liquid and NAR, as the top two teams, will be seeded into the upper bracket. Meanwhile, the other two teams will be placed in the lower bracket. Day 3 will start with the upper bracket finals at 18:00 CEST, followed by the lower bracket finals at 21:30 CEST. All games in the playoffs will be best-of-three.
The top two teams of the qualifiers will travel to Seattle this coming July for The International 4. The Champion will get an outright slot into the main event, while the runner-up will have to go through a wildcard tournament against three other teams for the final slot. The three other teams participating will be the respective runner-ups of the other qualifiers - Europe, China and Southeast Asia.
For more information about The International 4 and the regional qualifiers, please visit our coverage hub here.
