NRG outclass INTZ to qualify for StarLadder Major

NRG are the first team to qualify for the StarLadder Major through the Minors after beating INTZ in quick fashion in the upper bracket final of the Americas Minor.

The North American team entered the series determined to validade their status as favourites and jumped out to a 5-0 lead on the Terrorist side of Train - their map pick - to force Gustavo "⁠yel⁠" Knittel to call an early timeout. INTZ showed immediate improvements after that but still lost the next round following a spectacular 1v3 clutch by Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik.

It was only then that the Brazilians managed to put their foot down and hold back the dominant Terrorists, bringing the deficit to a solitary round after a spell in control. However, a massive blunder on their part then allowed Ethan "⁠Ethan⁠" Arnold to run riot in with a quad-kill, with that round turning the tide back in the favour of NRG, who closed out the half with a 10-5 lead.

INTZ kept themselves in the game by winning the second half pistol, but they were unable to fully capitalise on that, having been overwhelmed by NRG's Scouts in the third round. The two teams proceeded to trade blows in the following rounds before NRG put the game to rest in the 26th round with nothing more than pistols in hand.

Mirage settled into much the same pattern as the first map, with NRG getting off to a blazing fast start, this time on the CT side. After being down 0-8, INTZ started to get a foothold in the game with a series of B hit, but the North Americans quickly adjusted to what the game required and raced to a 12-3 lead.

More misery was heaped on the helpless Brazilians as they let the pistol round slip away to a 1v3 clutch by Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz, who toyed with his opponents and could not hide the smile on his face as he put his team up by ten rounds. The North Americans refused to take their foot off the gas and won the next three rounds to seal an emphatic win, sending INTZ to the all-deciding consolidation final, a mouth-watering Brazilian showdown against FURIA.

NRG are the sixth team confirmed for the StarLadder Major's New Challengers stage, which will be held from August 23-26 at the Verti Music Hall, in Berlin. They join five of the six teams who finished 9th through 14th at the IEM Katowice Major (the exception being Cloud9, who lost the majority of the line-up that competed in Poland).

The team list for the initial stage of the Major currently looks as follows: