ESL One Cologne open qual. finished

The first phase of the ESL One Cologne qualifiers has been finished, as the first three slots for the European closed qualifier have been filled.

From the first qualifier, that took place on April 22-23, Outlaws, the Bulgarian side that is currently in a contract dispute with BPRo, placed first overall.

To take the slot, Tsvetelin "⁠CeRq⁠" Dimitrov and co. had to overcome their countrymen Imperial, Vega Squadron and EPG in the end, the Swedish mix zzz.

The second open qualifier took place yesterday, and it was Polaris, a mix of four Norwegians and a Swede, and K29, the 'best of Belarus', taking the two slots.

Polaris, consisting of former Epsilon player Karl-William "⁠kalle⁠" Haraldsen, former fnatic Academy player Aleksandar "⁠jayzaR⁠" Zarkovic and the ex-Norse trio,  edged out ENCORE 16-14 and 2-1'd fnatic Academy to secure a spot in the closed qualifier.

On the other side of the bracket, Roman "⁠CyberFocus⁠" Dergach and co. defeated Tengri and a Swedish mix GreyFace to take the slot, as one of the favorites LDLC went out to Mathias "⁠PnX⁠" Pedersen's Ambush in the round of 16.

The following three teams will be joined by the winner of ESL Meisterschaft, ESL's German competition, and nine invited teams in the closed qualifier:

Outlaws

Polaris

K29

Professeur writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter.