Guild Eagles, AMKAL make IEM Chengdu closed qualifier

ENCE, NIP, and BLEED were among the names to fall in the first open qualifier.

Devilwalk stood in for his team and helped them advance to day two

Guild Eagles and AMKAL have earned spots in the Europe closed qualifier for IEM Chengdu after topping the first open bracket. The pair join Falcons, Eternal Fire, BetBoom, and BIG on the team list for the closed stage, with two final spots on offer through the second open qualifier.

Nearly 500 teams took part in the first open bracket, including many familiar names who had been in action for the PGL Major Copenhagen EU RMR open qualifiers.

BLEED and 9INE had both failed to make the closed stage of the EU RMR qualifier, and their woes continued here as they were both knocked out in the Round of 256 by unfamiliar faces.

ENCE, 00NATION, and Alliance then exited in the Round of 64, Apeks, Endpoint, Preasy, and KOI fell in the Round of 32, and Ninjas in Pyjamas and PARIVISION lost in the Round of 16.

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Guild Eagles, meanwhile, were forced to use coach Jonatan "⁠Devilwalk⁠" Lundberg as a stand-in for Genc "⁠gxx-⁠" Kolgeci due to an "unforeseen medical emergency" from the start of their day one run, with the Swede returning to the server after last stepping in for the team in August.

He proved successful as a stand-in as Guild Eagles made it to day two of the qualifier, where gxx- was able to return and help his team beat Into the Breach and Sprout to qualify.

AMKAL, containing the former 1win core, secured the other spot out of the first open qualifier, notably taking down L&G, PIXEL, and Insilio in their bracket run.

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Liquid overcome early scares to reach IEM Chengdu NA closed qualifier

The second open qualifier will run from January 19-20 and award the final two spots in the closed stage, which will play out from February 8-10 and utilize a double-elimination, best-of-three bracket to award one team a spot at IEM Chengdu.

The team list for the closed qualifier is now:

Falcons
Eternal Fire
BIG

BetBoom
Guild Eagles
AMKAL