Mystik and n! win regional qualifiers

Clan-Mystik have topped the French National Finals and n!faculty did the same at the Nordic Regional Finals, as they became the first two teams to reach the last step of the qualifying process for EMS One Katowice.

After two cups in both France and the Nordics during the past few weeks, eight best teams from each region advanced to their respective Finals, which were set to decide one team that would advance to the last qualifying stage for EMS One Katowice.

kioShiMa and co. had no problems making it through the French qualifier

Since Titan and LDLC.com already have spots for the $250,000 event, the main favorites in France were Clan-Mystik despite their recent lineup changes.

Mystik's opponents in the final were lesser known Frenchmen of webSPELL, and they presented no trouble for the ESWC champions who came out on top 16-5 on de_inferno and 16-3 on de_nuke, as Kenny "kennyS" Schrub ended up edging one step closer to reclaiming his ticket for Katowice after being dropped by the already qualified trio that is now in LDLC.

It was a far more interesting battle in the Nordic final where n!faculty, who previously knocked out Jacob "pyth" Mourujärvi's mix TBA and Norwegians Partyastronauts, met Assembly Winter champions H2k Gaming.

The Norwegian squad previously had lots of problems on their way to the final with third map overtime wins in both of their clashes, in the quarter-final against ESC and in the semis versus ENCE.

Pimp, gla1ve & co. topped the Nordic pre-qualifier

The grand final would also feature extra rounds on the first map, but this time H2k were on the losing end of a 36-31 scoreline on de_inferno. N!faculty also ended up winning de_train 16-6, and thus triumphing 2-0 in this qualifier and securing their spot in the Online Finals.

That means that we now know the first two of the total of sixteen teams that will battle for EMS One Katowice in the final stage of the qualifiers later this month:

Clan-Mystik

n!faculty

Next up are UK and Polish Regional Finals which both start tomorrow, with the former offering one spot and the latter two spots in the next qualification stage. After that, next weekend is reserved for German and CIS Regional Finals, while the week after will give a chance to all teams that failed to make it through and the ones who didn't have qualifiers for their region, offering 8 spots through the two European qualifiers.

After all 16 teams are found, Online Finals will take place on February 25th-27th from where the best 6 will earn a spot at the $250,000 tournament that is scheduled for March 13th-16th in Katowice, Poland.