Gambit Youngsters, Winstrike, Spirit & Syman qualify for CIS Minor

The first four teams through to the CIS Minor have been decided following the conclusion of the regional closed qualifier's upper bracket.

The closed qualifier kicked off on Thursday with the upper portion of the bracket, which saw Gambit Youngsters, Winstrike, Spirit and Syman all book spots in the CIS Minor after successfully navigating their way through the initial stages of the competition.

Winstrike dispatched HellRaisers in the opening round of the double-elimination tournament before taking down a struggling FORZE side. Meanwhile, Gambit Youngsters breezed past eL'quvet and 1win, with Anton "⁠supra⁠" Tšernobai and Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov ending the day at the top of the qualifier's rating charts.

Hobbit led Winstrike to an upset over forZe to qualify for the CIS Minor

In the other matchups, Syman defeated fbg and narrowly overcame Hard Legion in a close three-map series, while Spirit outclassed SG.pro and Espada without dropping a map.

Four more spots at the CIS Minor will be determined through the lower bracket on Friday to bring the total team count up to eight. The LAN event will be held from April 26 to May 2 in Rio de Janeiro, with two places in the New Challengers Stage and one in the Minor Play-In on offer.

The CIS Minor participants' list currently looks as follows:

Gambit Youngsters
Syman
Unknown flag cis Closed qualifier
Unknown flag cis Closed qualifier

Winstrike
Spirit
Unknown flag cis Closed qualifier
Unknown flag cis Closed qualifier