FURIA, Sharks through to Americas Minor playoffs

FURIA and Sharks qualified for the Americas Minor playoffs after taking down Luminosity and Singularity, respectively.

The decider stage of the Americas Minor began with an all-Brazilian brawl featuring FURIA and Luminosity, with Vertigo kicking off the action. Luminosity had only played this map once, in an ECS victory over Liquid, but they showed that they were well prepared for their opponents' map pick, taking seven rounds on the offensive side.

FURIA came out of the break with fire in their bellies and won six of the opening seven rounds to get within touching distance of victory. Luminosity then put their foot down and held back their opponents for a bit, bringing the deficit to 12-14, but it would amount to nothing as one final push earned FURIA the map victory.

Ricardo "⁠boltz⁠" Prass came to Luminosity's rescue and racked up 21 kills as his team were in control during the vast majority of the first half of Mirage. It looked like the series could go the full distance, but FURIA ran all over the LG defense in the second half. The rounds Lucas "⁠steel⁠" Lopes's troops won were far an far between as they struggled with the pace of their opponents, who cruised to a 16-11 victory to book a spot in the playoffs.

Meanwhile, Sharks and Singularity played out an intense three-map series in a rematch of Wednesday's single-map encounter. The Brazilians went again for a Nuke pick, which seems to be their go-to map at this event, but this time around they were completely out-played by the North Americans.

Singularity showed they had learned the lesson from their disappointing defeat on Wednesday and raced to a commanding 9-0 lead on the CT side after limiting the impact of Jhonatan "⁠jnt⁠" Silva, who had run riot in the previous encounter between the two sides. Sharks then finally woke up and found their footing, bringing the deficit to seven rounds before the break.

After switching over to the CT side, Sharks won a much-needed pistol following an intense 5v5 ramp battle. The Brazilians followed that up with the next two rounds, but then Singularity took control of the game and won seven consecutive rounds to lock down the map at 16-7.

Sharks came out on Vertigo looking a completely different side and jumped out to a 6-0 lead on the defense. Singularity then enjoyed a spell of dominance, stringing three rounds together, before the Brazilians were back in control, with the half ending with a 10-5 scoreline.

Singularity knew they had a mountain to climb to turn it around, and things became even rougher for them after being shut down in the pistol round. One round was all that the North Americans could muster as Sharks kept the pace of the game high and quickly wrapped things up.

Leonardo "⁠leo_drk⁠" Oliveira went huge in the first pistol round on Train with a quad-kill, setting his team up for a 3-0 lead. Clutches from Renato "⁠nak⁠" Nakano and Raphael "⁠exit⁠" Lacerda in the early gun rounds allowed the Brazilians to snowball the game, with Singularity replying only in the dying stages of the half to bring the scoreline to 4-11.

Singularity came out strongly from the break and won six of the opening seven rounds of the second half, piling the pressure on Sharks' players. The Brazilian players would not let victory slip away, though, and secured the four rounds they needed to complete the reverse sweep in the series.

Below you can find the schedule for the Americas Minor playoffs:

Friday, July 19

10:00 - NRG vs. FURIA | BO3
13:00 - INTZ vs. Sharks | BO3

Saturday, July 20

10:00 - Elimination match | BO3
13:00 - Winners' bracket final | BO3

Sunday, July 21

14:00 - Lower bracket final | BO3