9z qualify for IEM Chengdu

The South American side made it through the four-team closed qualifier unscathed.

Martinez was the top-rated player in the qualifier with a 1.29

9z punched their ticket to IEM Chengdu after prevailing in the South American qualifier with three victories in the double-elimination bracket.

An opening victory against RED Canids gave way to back-to-back 2-1 victories against MIBR, who eliminated Sharks in the consolidation final between matches.

The grand final was particularly close, going all the way to the 24th round on the Mirage decider, but a quad-kill by Antonio "⁠MartinezSa⁠" Martinez with three AWP shots put an end to the series.

The Spanish AWPer's recent signing from Movistar Riders is already paying dividends, as he went beyond the game-winning highlight and was the star of the series with a 1.39 rating.

This makes 9z the second team to make it out of an IEM Chengdu qualifier, following Lynn Vision, and there are still four more spots up for grabs in four qualifiers in Europe, Asia, Oceania, and North America.

IEM Chengdu, which will take place on April 8-14, already has a strong team list, including three top 5 sides in FaZe, MOUZ, and Virtus.pro, as well as several top 10 and top 20 teams.

The team list for IEM Chengdu so far is:

FaZe
MOUZ
Virtus.pro
Monte
G2
Complexity
Qualifier
Qualifier

Cloud9
FURIA
Astralis
Lynn Vision
9z
HEROIC
Qualifier
Qualifier