AVANT beat ORDER 2-1; qualify for Asia Minor

AVANT beat ORDER in three maps, Mirage (12-16), Nuke (16-11), and Train (16-11), to secure a spot in the Asia Minor.

ORDER and AVANT faced off in the the upper bracket quarter-final which AVANT won 2-1, knocking their rivals down to the lower bracket in the first round of play. After that, AVANT went on to beat Ground Zero, but were denied the qualification to the Asia Minor by Grayhound in the upper bracket final.

Plowing through the lower bracket, ORDER won three matches without dropping a single map against Paradox, Genuine, and rewound, setting themselves up for a revenge match against AVANT.

That match kicked off on Mirage, AVANT’s map pick, with them taking a narrow 8-7 lead at the half. After both teams winning four rounds each at the beginning of the second half, it was finally Joshua "⁠INS⁠" Potter and co. who were able to bagfirst map, 16-12, to take the lead in the series going into their pick.

AVANT took the early lead on Nuke, as ORDER struggled to get rounds early on with a shoddy defense, although they were eventually able to take a few rounds before the switch to make it 6-9. ORDER won the second pistol round, but AVANT took control of the map on the defense to tie the series up, 1-1, with a 16-11 scoreline.

AVANT got off to a flying 7-2 start on the CT side of Train. ORDER tried to make a match of it late in the half, but were unable to get more than five rounds . AVANT, having won the second pistol round, put themselves in a good place to take the map and match. ORDER won four rounds in a row when able to get fully equipped, but it was then AVANT who were able to get on match point, eventually closing the map and match out, 16-11.

The final standings of the Asia Minor Oceania qualifier are:

1. Grayhound - Asia Minor
2. AVANT - Asia Minor
3. ORDER
4. rewound
5-6. Ground Zero
5-6. Genuine
7-8. Paradox
7.8. PC419

With only two slots up for grabs in the China closed qualifier, the Asia Minor currently looks as follows: