EPICENTER 2017 closed qualifiers announced

11-9-2017 18:14

The team list for the European, CIS and North American EPICENTER 2017 closed qualifiers have been released, with the likes of FaZe, Natus Vincere and Cloud9 making the cut.

After concluding the total of six open qualifiers for EPICENTER 2017, two per region, the time for the closed qualifiers has come. Each region will have eight teams competing in the closed portion of the qualifier, with the best teams from each open qualifier being joined by six hand picked ones.

The teams will be split into two GSL-style groups, with the two best ones from each group moving on to a double-elimination playoff bracket. All of the matches in the qualifier will be played as BO3's. In the end, only the best team from each qualifier will earn a spot at the Wildcard qualifier, which will take place on LAN a few days before the main tournament starts.

FaZe will have to fight for a spot in St. Petersburg

In Europe, Space Soldiers and HellRaisers will be joined by invited teams FaZe, BIG, fnatic and Ninjas in Pyjamas, as well as MOUZ and HEROIC, who competed in the first open qualifier but were eliminated by the Turkish side and Binary Dragons, respectively.

You can find the groups for the European EPICENTER 2017 closed qualifier below:

Group A	Group B
FaZe	fnatic
Ninjas in Pyjamas	HellRaisers
Space Soldiers	HEROIC
BIG	MOUZ

Natus Vincere is the biggest name in the CIS qualifier, alongside Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy's FlipSid3. Joining them will be Spirit Academy and Quantum Bellator Fire from the open qualifier, as well as Vega Squadron and Spirit.

The groups for the CIS closed qualifier are as follows:

Group A	Group B
Natus Vincere	FlipSid3
Spirit	AVANGAR
Quantum Bellator Fire	Vega Squadron
FORZE	Spirit Academy

NRG and Luminosity earned their spots in the closed qulifier for North America, and will be joined by the notable teams from the continent, such as Immortals, Cloud9 and Liquid. OpTic, who have five European players but play in the North American division of ESL Pro League, will also compete in the North American qualifier for EPICENTER 2017.

This is the full team list for the North American closed qualifier for EPICENTER 2017:

Group A	Group B
Immortals	Cloud9
Liquid	Misfits
Luminosity	NRG
CLG	OpTic

The closed qualifiers will start on the 12th of September with the CIS matches and will run for three weeks. The last match to be played, the North American final, is scheduled for October 3rd.

To remind you, the team list for EPICENTER 2017 currently looks like this:

Astralis	G2
Gambit	North
SK	Virtus.pro
Wildcard Qualifier	Wildcard Qualifier

Wildcard ooh wee

2017-09-11 18:15

3 replies

TENDIEEEEEES

2017-09-11 18:39

1 reply

GIMME GIMME CHICKEN TENDIES BE THEY CRISPY OR FROM WENDY's

2017-09-11 18:40

Faze in qualifier? jesus

2017-09-13 23:29

rip SS

2017-09-11 18:14

5 replies

SS already win against mousesport and invited mousesport WTF

2017-09-11 18:35

4 replies

bullshit

2017-09-11 18:56

2 replies

:/ sad story

2017-09-11 21:41

Press the icon left to my name and check their last results.

2017-09-12 04:46

Heroic too bro...

2017-09-12 10:52

ez for nrg

IMMORTALS VS CLG HYPE!

IMT Koosta Hype! Hopefully he forgets the defuse kit ;)

2017-09-11 19:07

nice

easy 4 forze

NA players bitching about OpTic in NA qualifiers incoming

Optic actually is not even the top 4 there XD

2017-09-11 18:27

No, cuz Optic top1.

2017-09-11 19:16

Optic now has to prove themselves. SK, Imt, Liquid and maybe C9 are in a higher level than the europeans.

2017-09-11 21:07

I haven't seen anyone complaining about it ever since they came to NA

2017-09-12 12:44

immortals will get late to the tournament again lol

RiP navi, ez4Jame

2017-09-11 18:16

starix vs NaVi Oh wait

wait what? :D

2017-09-12 01:14

FaZe, NiP, SS, BIG LUL Team of best aim and disappointments

Nip has best aim? lul

2017-09-11 18:22

group A looks more like group of death but B more like familiy show

2017-09-11 18:43

rip ss

ez for ss

2017-09-11 18:17

why did VP get an invite again, most of the teams from the qualifier would probably beat them

8 replies

Because people actually like to see them.

2017-09-11 18:25

fucking shit team gets invited to every csgo event then they bomb out in groups with shit results

Maybe because they were in the grand final vs north ? Maybe owner of epicenter is also owner of vp ?Maybe because fanbase of VP is huge and this team attracts sponsors, fans etc? Just bear in mind forever that LAN are organized to make money.

2017-09-11 18:38

+1 but still sad to see this dying team being invited to every tournament.

2017-09-11 22:40

People forget that not that long ago vp were a top tier team, the only other one excepy astralis that were really contesting SK when they were still dominant. Theyre shit atm but their placings in previous iterations justify their invite. That's how its been in cs for a long time. There have been legend status teams at majors who didnt deserve the spot at the time. Its just part of the scene

2017-09-12 07:54

The past is the past, vp is bad they shouldnt deserve an invite whatsoever

2017-09-12 09:52

Hasn't VP been bombing out every group stage since 2017? They only somehow did well in the Major

2017-09-12 12:30

And won DreamHack Las Vegas but ok

2017-09-12 12:45

The closed qualifiers will start on the 12th of June???

poor SS that group

NATUS VINCERE IN QUAL HAHAHAHAHA

faze and nip in QUAL HAHAHAHAH!!!

2017-09-11 18:19

nip in 2017 AHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

2017-09-14 22:32

Renegades get snubbed despite being top 2 teams in NA, bar the South Americans.

2017-09-11 18:18

12th of June ?

ez nip

>12th of June n1

ez for imt

2017-09-11 18:20

rlp space soldiers

optic na wtf

optic na lul

2017-09-11 18:23

now KNG kill FNS

You'll prove it or I'll kill you.

2017-09-11 18:30

Rip SpaceS

Sorry for being lazy but.. i see 2 open spots but 3 regions, or are cis' best and europe's best playing a match for 1 spot?

2017-09-11 18:28

Best team/teams from this qualifier will get into the Wildcard qualifier. And from the Wildcard qualifier (which is a LAN) 2 teams will get into the event. It's really freaking complicated system to get into one event. It's almost like Major qualifiers.

2017-09-11 20:13

Rip SS hahahahahaha ez

2017-09-11 18:29

so mousesports played for fun in the qualifier? they threw the match against ss

no they lost fair and square.. its pretty dumb of epicenter to invite mouse who lost in the qualifiers. other teams deserve chances

2017-09-11 18:32

"other team deserve chances" mouse lost to ss in the finals what means 1.ss 2.mouse ss qualified mouse got invited

2017-09-12 15:42

No but still loss is a loss...

2017-09-12 10:53

Ez 4 Optic

group of death GROUP A EU

EU qualifiers always fight to death

2017-09-11 18:31

navi just win all games like 16-8.. f3 can win 1 map at all..

Gotta love them making up a CIS qualifier just to give Na'Vi a 'free' spot to the tournament, fucking russians.

OpTic lets gooo

wut double comment

2017-09-11 18:34

ez hacks

2017-09-11 19:03

3 Qualifiers (EU, CIS and NA) 2 Wildcard > In the end, only the best team from each qualifier will earn a spot at the Wildcard qualifier ??

2017-09-11 18:33

Wildcard = the 3 teams that get qualified + other invited teams (probably aussies and asians).

2017-09-11 19:01

i.imgur.com/DYLnXZB.png Wildcard = Wildcard Qualifier. No more invites.

2017-09-11 19:04

Maybe wildcard will be the 3 teams battling it out, and one going home? Looks weird af

wildcard will have 4 teams, 1 from each region (3 in total) and 4th invited maybe

2017-09-11 20:05

1 is from china region which make 4 region. HLTV didn't even bother to explain anything about it.

2017-09-12 04:36

group a niko f0rest xantares tabsen

lmao space soldiers, heroic and hellraisers invited + CIS qualifier xDD

2017-09-11 18:36

ss not invited they came from open qualifier

spaces and hr won open qualifers. wtf mate

hltv.org/matches/2314475/mousesports-vs-.. hltv.org/events/3144/epicenter-2017-euro..

2017-09-11 18:46

How the fuck is Brazil in North America? Rigged IMO

Because there is only NA leagues and EU leagues and Brazil isn't in Europe

2017-09-14 22:28

Should've added 16 teams to be honest. It is a major equivalent(in production values) with 1/2 prize pool.

Could anyone explain to me what a "wildcard qualifier" is?

2017-09-11 18:42

Qualified teams from EU CIS and NA gonna play another qualifier to get last 2 spot.

lucky that EPICENTER is owned by VP, otherwise they wouldn't get invite and no chance that they would pass online qual

2017-09-11 18:45

no invite for navi dafuq are u doin epicenter

Heroic is eliminated by a shit team (Binary Dragons) in open qualifiers and mouz is eliminated by SS in open qualifiers. Both of them gets invited to the close qualifier. What the fuck is the point of them being in openq then?

2017-09-11 18:47

Opy HeMoTy

2017-09-11 18:55

My kebab friends please stop crying like a bitch. If SS want to be solid t2 and a succesful team, they have to rekt this teams. Gud luck schutzstaffel

2017-09-11 19:02

fuck navi i wish f3 win the qualifier so electronic can have another memorable performance and is finally signed up to a better team #FREEELECTRONIC

Space Soldiers eliminated Mousesports in qualifers but mousesports invited again? >Epicenter >Logic Pick one.

They deserve a spot for sure but wtf? This is just not cool.

2017-09-11 22:19

EZ NRG EZ CERQ EZ EPICENTER

2017-09-11 19:05

Easy for FaZe Clan

2017-09-11 19:06

OpTic on NA side LUL

Never lucky space soldiers...

2017-09-11 19:10

ss eliminated mouz in qualifers but mouz invited again. fucking shit epicenter

2017-09-11 19:12

No nV? K

2017-09-11 19:13

tengri? did they not play open quali because of roster issues?

Hahaha mouz invite LMAO fucking shit epicenter!

Rip my soldiers :(

Ss is there can you not be this dumb

2017-09-11 19:57

Optic=5 eu players So put them into EU qualifiers already ffs

2017-09-11 19:20

I can't imagine BIG getting through, but lets see

2017-09-11 19:24

Group A Natus Vincere Spirit Quantum Bellator Fire forZe That group kaef

2017-09-11 19:44

Hope IMT right their clocks

2017-09-11 20:10

mouse eliminete but still gets the invite LOL

2017-09-11 20:15

faze and fnatic CLOSED QUALIFIERS LUL

Good luck FlipSid3

2017-09-11 20:33

5 russian noobteams wtf

2017-09-11 20:49

Lol VP invited

2017-09-11 21:02

ez optic

2017-09-11 21:06

plz stop inviting virtus blow ...

2017-09-11 21:32

confused 3 qualifiers 2 open spots can comeone enlighten me? are the winners of cis eu playing each other for the spot. and na winner gets the second?

2017-09-11 21:36

7 replies

There are 4 regions. Eu cis na and china. Winner of them will advance to wildcard which only top 2 teams are able to compete in main event

2017-09-11 22:29

6 replies

alright so this is basically closed qualifier for the 4 team qualifier? lol

2017-09-11 22:38

Exactly

2017-09-11 23:29

k ty...pretty hard qualifiers...guess thats what happens when you give away free spots to vp and gambit.

2017-09-12 00:25

+1 and when you invite mousesports and heroic to the closed when they got eliminated in the open qualifier. Why did they even play the open lmao

2017-09-12 00:31

lollll didnt even know that, i mean they deserve more then flip or hr but still. I have no problem with the aforementioned teams playing in the tourney because they are decent but not invite worthy. make them go through a qual and invite navi and faze or something. That way we can drop the cis qual and make them go through eu. then make two from eu and two from na go to the wildcard qual. shit invites tbh. qualifier almost looks more exciting then the tourney its self. one spot going to na 1 to eu and 1 to cis na is going to be tough with optic, liquid, imt, and c9. eu also has faze, nip, ss, big, and mous..atleast those are who i think are the strongest looking right now.

2017-09-12 00:43

2017-09-12 12:22

wildcard qualifiers or Bingo qualifiers?

2017-09-11 22:17

Why Faze were not invited to main even, if they appeared on that epicenter teaser video?

2017-09-11 22:51

Because EPICENT saw they look so bad with newlineup

2017-09-11 23:01

Optic in NA lol

2017-09-11 22:58

More like tier 1 EU and tier 2 "eu" qualifiers :)

2017-09-11 23:12

Spirit Academy >>> Spirit

2017-09-12 00:27

NA will be the toughest qualifier

So we can't watch the close qualifier at all?

no gale force no party

2017-09-12 06:45

EzforZe

2017-09-12 08:01

dis gon b gud

2017-09-12 09:29

Immortals will qualify. I think they're better than OpTic and Liquid online can lose to Ben's Anime Team. C9 so far have been having a bad stretch and I dont think they've had time to really sit down and just iron out their problems. Misfits, LG, and NRG aren't good as a whole, maybe upset potential but not qualify potential.

2017-09-12 12:49