With six of the world's top 10 teams all competing for a spot at the Major there's every chance that one of them won't make it...
Rested NiP will wake up again
On paper NiP are one of the most in-form teams competing at the qualifier.
They’re the only team in the past three months to have won multiple $250k+ prize pool tournaments, those being StarLadder and IEM Oakland.
By defeating FaZe, Immortals and SK in best of threes, their route to being crowned champions in Oakland was nothing short of incredible.
However the Swedes aren’t without their shortcomings, having failed to reach the semi-final of ELEAGUE, and took a leaf out of Virtus.Pro’s book by failing to qualify for ECS Season 2 Finals.
Though that won’t bother them as it means they’ve got more time to practice with pyth and can take a break from the hectic schedule.
With such favourable odds against Renegades at {ODDS:126260770:1.28}, NiP should be to sleep walk to qualification.
Not FaZed by the fierce competition
With three back to back third place finishes, FaZe’s newest iteration are starting to find their feet but reaching a final is a goal that continues to elude them.
It was only two months ago that they were sitting at an all-time low of 16th on HLTV’s world ranking.
Now, they’re up to a respectable 8th place and have managed to best many of the top 5 teams on LAN.
Some of their most note-worthy results include best of three wins versus Cloud9, Virtus.Pro and Immortals all during ELEAGUE.
Their current form should be more than enough to secure the qualification, and if they’re able to build on their recent success they’ll pose a real threat to teams at the Major proper.
FaZe’s opening match against Cloud9 will be one of their more difficult tests on the way to qualification, but odds of {ODDS:126260755:1.55} say they’ll have a good chance to overcome it.
dignitas down but not out
Beating Spirit in their first qualifier match should be nothing more than going through the motions for dignitas, especially when you consider they’re {ODDS:126260740:1.10} favourites.
Despite the short odds, not everything has been that straight forward for the Danes. Since their successful outing at EPICENTER, their form has dropped off a cliff – but they’re not without their excuses.
Since their successful outing at EPICENTER, their form has dropped off a cliff – but they’re not without their excuses.
During Pro League MagiskBoY was ill with food poisoning, they were burned out during DreamHack Winter, and valde stood in for MagiskBoY at ECS.
Excuses aside, they’re still a top team and qualifying for the Major is still well within their grasp.
Outsiders OpTic
Not only have OpTic broken into the top 10 in the world rankings, they’ve also overtaken Cloud9 as the top ranked NA team.
The rise in the rankings comes off the back of a string of great online and offline results.
The first of which was a convincing victory at Northern Arena, followed up by an incredible first place finish at ELEAGUE and a respectable second placing at ECS.
In their opening Major qualifier match they’ll be facing the ever-inconsistent Tyloo, in which they’re heavy favourites at {ODDS:126260780:1.28} to win.
If they play as well as they did at ELEAGUE and ECS they’ll breeze through qualification and have a fantastic chance of causing a stir at the Major.
That’s the Spirit
Other than Vega Squadron, Spirit are the only team at the qualifier that doesn’t feature in HLTV’s top 30 world ranking.
To say they were underdogs wouldn’t be an exaggeration.
Despite consistently performing well against teams from their region, success against teams within the top 20 has been hard to come by for the Russians.
It doesn’t get much tougher than having to face dignitas and as {ODDS:126260741:5.80} outsiders it’s hard seeing them coming out on top.
If they come up against the same worn out dignitas that showed up to DreamHack Winter, Spirit will have every chance to steal the game despite their long odds.
