After the smoke of the quarterfinals cleared, the first four teams to punch their ticket to the First Strike NA finals are 100 Thieves, Sentinels, Envy and Renegades. The four teams all advanced to the semi-finals of the Nerd St Gamers Closed Qualifier which pencils them in for the main event from Dec. 3-6, as half of the field is now set.
100 Thieves defeated TSM 2-0 after a 15-13 thriller on Haven to decide things. 100 Thieves’ new lineup has been highly anticipated, with the recent additions of Quan “Dicey” Tran, Peter “Asuna” Mazuryk, Josh “Steel” Nissan and Nick “Nitro” Cannella to join Spencer “Hiko” Martin.
The new-look roster hadn’t competed together until the NSG Open Qualifier, where they fell 2-0 to TSM in the quarterfinals. 100 Thieves then beat Sentinels in the semi-final 2-1 to advance to the finals of the closed qualifier, strictly for seeding purposes.
Renegades also surprised in the quarterfinals, defeating Open Qualifier winners Cloud9 Blue 2-0. They pulled through on Split, down 15-14 before rattling off three straight OT round wins to take the first map. On Ascent, they took a commanding 10-2 lead before stumbling a bit, allowing it to get as close as 10-7 before taking the 13-9 victory. Ryan “Winsum” Johns lead all players with a 175 ADR.
Sentinels were the only team that went to a third map before winning their quarterfinal match against T1. An hour-long grind on Bind saw T1 win their map pick 15-13. Sentinels responded by winning the next two maps 13-9 and 13-6. They then fell to 100 Thieves in the semi-final, but are still qualified for the main event.
Envy, a team improving at an insane rate, trounced Complexity 13-7, 13-1 in the quarterfinals to qualify for the main event. New additions Austin “crashies” Roberts and Victor “food” Wong played well, along with Pujan “FNS” Mehta, Anthony “mummAy” DiPaolo and Jake “kaboose” McDonald. Envy placed second in the open qualifier. They then defeated Renegades in the semi-final and will play 100 Thieves for a top-two seed at the main event.
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