IEM Chengdu 2024 North America Closed Qualifier

M80 beat Liquid to qualify for IEM Chengdu

21-1-2024 10:42

M80's secured their second consecutive victory against the stacked squad around cadiaN.

malbsMd dragged M80 to Chengdu with a 1.37 rating in 11 maps

M80 have won the IEM Chengdu North American Closed Qualifier and secured a spot at the tournament taking place from April 8-14.

In China, the North American side will join 15 other teams including the likes of FaZe, MOUZ and G2 to compete for $250,000.

After losing the opening series of the qualifier to Wildcard, Michael "⁠Swisher⁠" Schmid and company ran through the lower bracket and beat every team in attendance, including the widely favored Liquid in a three-map grand final affair.

Date	Matches
IEM Chengdu 2024 North America Closed Qualifier
19/01/2024	M80 Finished 1:2 Wildcard	Match
20/01/2024	M80 Finished 2:0 BOSS	Match
20/01/2024	Wildcard Finished 1:2 M80	Match
21/01/2024	Liquid Finished 1:2 M80	Match

Guatemalan star Mario "⁠malbsMd⁠" Samayoa was crucial to the successful run as he dominated the tournament's charts with a 1.37 rating, 0.90 KPR, 93.3 ADR, and 1.55 Impact over 11 maps played.

He and Swisher shone in the toughest test against Liquid, which marked M80's second win against the stacked squad after they previously beat them 13-3 in the PGL Major Copenhagen NA RMR Closed Qualifier.

ESL previously announced all directly invited teams to IEM Chengdu and 9z secured the first qualifier spot from South America. Just three spots remain to be filled, coming from the closed qualifiers in Oceania (January 22-23), Asia (January 26-27) and Europe (February 8-10).

The current list of teams who will attend the Chinese tournament is:

Asia Closed Qualifier

Europe Closed Qualifier

Oceania Closed Qualifier

nooo

2024-01-21 10:42

liquid wat doink

skullz is skillz

M80 played very well, deserved! Edit: Hello mr Striker I wish you a pleasant day and I hope all good with u mens))

2024-01-21 10:43

Unluko liquid

2024-01-21 10:44

cadiaN has to be the most overrated igl ever

2024-01-21 10:45

25 replies

2024-01-21 10:48

impossible for him to beat Slaxz-

2024-01-21 11:12

4 replies

Is slaxz igling?

2024-01-21 22:11

3 replies

no but if he cant outcall slaxz- its over for cadian

2024-01-21 22:21

2 replies

Lmfao true

2024-01-21 23:12

Lma9

2024-01-22 15:39

and twisstz was dickriding him calling him top 2 IGL LUL

2024-01-21 11:16

2024-01-21 11:34

How so? He called in a roster that was top 3 for multiple years, made semis/finals at many events they attended, won some of those and did that without ever having a standout star player. Its like saying glaive is the most overrated igl ever because he couldnt raise astralis to old heights again...

2024-01-21 12:30

12 replies

he never said cadian is a bad igl, he is simply overrated. still a very decent caller

2024-01-21 12:45

how can he be overrated? And who isnt overrated then?

2024-01-21 13:07

what's the problem bro? overrated = rated or valued too highly. if a top5 player is considered top3 then he is overrated. he is still one of the best but valued too highly.

2024-01-21 14:13

1 reply

Hltv people thinking overrated = bad lmfao

in the end he choked a lot. he did win blast tournaments but those aren't really s tier tournaments. that major rio final i'm sorry but they should have beaten outsiders. same with the gamerlegion semi final. cadiaN tends to overthink in clutch games. also to say that he didn't have a standout star player is false. stavn was their star player and was set up. the fact that stavn didn't perform in the most important moments is a different story. cadiaN has done an amazing job with Heroic but people were calling him the best igl in the world which I don't think he is. his style of calling is unique but people have caught on. if he can adapt i'm willing to admit that i'm wrong but only time will tell. with this liquid team he has no excuse to not win a major and beating m80 in a qualifier surely should be a given? he's for sure top5 igl itw but i don't think he's top3. i think apEX is a better igl and even his work with misutaa and kyojin was genuinely remarkable. 2022 is the only stain on his cv.

2024-01-21 13:55

7 replies

very well said

2024-01-21 14:10

I mean obviously they should win qualifier matches vs m80 but its online, every top team can struggle online. I just wanna see what they do on LAN.. "with this liquid team he has no excuse to not win a major" - I dont think so, this team is not a favourite to win a major on paper. There are quite a few teams I would definitely rank higher: Vitality obviously, Faze as well. C9, SPirit, VP, falcons if they click are also not worse than liqid on paper. I think the best IGLs of the past 2 years were Karrigan, Cadian, Snappi and Apex, no way around those 4. Cadian was definitely not overrated on heroic imo, now it might be different though, its hard to switch to an international lineup with players that come from all sorts of teams and schools of cs. Uniting them can take a lot of time. Or maybe they will never click and need roster changes.

2024-01-21 14:36

having twistzz, naf and yekindar and losing to m80 is genuinely laughable. previous liquid rosters were having fun in these games, the one stew and fallen too. and as i said having twistzz, naf and yekindar makes you the major favourite instantly. they're all top 20 players for God's sake. to rank c9, spirit, vp and falcons above them, you're taking the piss. they all played in an international lineup you can make that excuse for any player. your arguments are very very weak. if you seriously think donk(not even tested on tier1 LANs), zontix and magix is better than twistzz, naf and yekindar then idfk anymore.

2024-01-21 15:26

I have high expectations for liquid but i dont see them as favourites for any tournament for now. They all cone fron different schools of cs. Ofc they can always do damage with those players. The teams I named have way more experience playing together + they all have firepower that id at least equal to liquids...

2024-01-21 16:35

You’re absolutely crazy if you think them having a core of top 20 players makes them favorites for the major lol. By that logic, Astralis should be the favorites to win every tournament from here on out since they had the #9, #11, #15, and #16 players this year.

2024-01-21 18:04

BlameF is a fraud Also they dont have a real leader. This team with No leader is like having a lambo with no steering wheel

2024-01-22 00:42

+1 I dont see this lineup dominate the scene tho Twistzz,NAF,yekindar all of them are potentially top20 players (even skullz maybe) but i dont think if more than 1 of them could crack in to top10 let alone top5. Stats says if you dont have a top5 player (or multiple top10 players) you can’t dominate the scene So put the idea of IGS out of your head (what Twistzz said in his welcome back video)

2024-01-22 00:40

+1 good igl but overrated as fuck

After losing one match against known onliners malbz and swisher? LMAO cya at the major

2024-01-21 22:09

Malbs was recking at pro league wdym

2024-01-21 22:12

hltv.org/stats/players/11617/malbsmd?mat.. These m80 frauds will get knocked out 1-3 at the rmr

2024-01-21 22:16

Lulquid didnt surprise again

2024-01-21 10:47

big swish > cadiaN

2024-01-21 10:50

Liquid starting real weak,hope they can improve.

2024-01-21 10:53

L M A O

2024-01-21 10:54

fruad skullz man

2024-01-21 10:56

5 replies

He wasnt the problem. cadiaN and YEKINDAR were the real reasons why Liquid lost.

2024-01-21 14:37

You're such a butthurt lmao, always blaming Europeans

2024-01-21 14:44

Unlike you, I’m not blind to the real reasons for losses. I watched the fucking game. both cadiaN and YEKINDAR were the real reasons why Liquid lost. The latter was throwing rounds and cadiaN can’t kill and was getting outcalled.

2024-01-21 14:45

How so? Coz i was watching m80 take mid control away from twistzz like candy from a child. And mid is the most important part of the map.

2024-01-21 19:27

2024-01-21 22:10

lmaooooo twistzz

2024-01-21 11:01

Twistzz: I've made a huge mistake

2024-01-21 11:17

good for them, sad for liquid

2024-01-21 11:18

skullz an other brazilian super talent who is actually a big FLOP?

2024-01-21 11:24

more like cadiaN needs to get a grip and YEKINDAR needs to stop throwing rounds.

AHAHAHAHAHAH

2024-01-21 11:28

YEP

2024-01-21 11:32

twistzz left faze for this kekw

From winning big tournaments to not even qualifying

unlucky, but at least liquid are a partner team so theyll get their lan chances

2024-01-21 11:33

good luck next time

skullz + yekindar are so fkn bad, this team wont go anywhere until either one or prefebably both will be removed

2024-01-21 11:41

Imagine buying a player with the same price as m0nesy to only get 0.91 against a tier 2 team and consistent bottomfragging 💀

2024-01-21 12:00

what the fuck are they doing, their start has been awful so far

2024-01-21 12:02

Saving strats for BLAST

2024-01-21 12:11

Oh Russel, what have you done …

2024-01-21 12:27

trade skullz to insani

2024-01-21 12:42

Would be the same problem.

2024-01-21 15:45

Insani is dogshit, overrated af.

kick skullz, he are not fit for the system or the entire team play

2024-01-21 12:49

get Pikachu in his place instead

2024-01-21 15:21

This is actually good news for Murica. Not so good for Liquid but for Murica.

2024-01-21 12:54

i do get it’s not 2-0 but losing the game is shameless

2024-01-21 13:19

Looooooooool Their sessions with the performance coach really helped youtu.be/chb1VlMTOqc?si=dC9tJ4AZ5jyGjdLC

2024-01-21 13:50

Yikes 😬

2024-01-21 13:49

.......... respect to m80 but really bad sign for liquid

2024-01-21 13:52

Lmao are you kidding me, oh my

2024-01-21 13:54

Colossus flashbacks.

2024-01-21 14:09

always good to see yekindar hold that L dudes ego bigger than his skill at the game

2024-01-21 14:15

Would rather watch players having ego like stew, s1mple, yekindar or cadian shittalking their opponents and saying to buncha Mongolian nonamers "fucking noobs" on lan than another mechanically good npc player like bywoo Players with any character get treated like they are villains nowadays, yikes.

2024-01-21 22:42

unlike the others he doesnt have the stats to back up the trashtalk his 3month honeymoon period in liquid is over, he has been average for well over a year now+bro though he could be a good igl and pull good stats

2024-01-21 23:41

💀 z

2024-01-21 14:25

omegalul

2024-01-21 14:43

Unexpected to be honest, congratz! hf

2024-01-21 15:09

It was 50/50, people sleep on M80 way too much and liquid has had anything but a pleasant debut.

2024-01-21 18:22

I'd definitely give them more chances last night if only they did not have another exhausting match vs Wildcard where they won 2:1. Their Liquid's match was just an hour later, so I kinda thought that given they aren't that experienced they'd probably gave it all vs Wildcards and had nothing left in their tank for the upcoming match which was just an hour later, but looks like that was just a warm up for them and so they played even better than they likely would've if they hadn't had to meet Wildcards first :) Oh well, good for them.

2024-01-21 21:49

Imagine leaving FAZE for this.

2024-01-21 15:24

hahahahaha

2024-01-21 15:25

M80 literally own Team Liquid now

2024-01-21 15:39

Agreed! and might I add excellent flair my friend :)

2024-01-21 16:00

Thx friend :D

2024-01-21 16:37

To be fair Liquid got the malbsMd online treatment, but they still should never lose to M80 as a tier 1 team.

2024-01-21 15:47

-cadian +stanislaw

2024-01-21 16:58

Yeah and NAF back to awping bro

2024-01-21 22:25

Elige was the problem.

2024-01-21 17:05

Swisher is so underrated

2024-01-21 17:57

liquid bounce back in spring groups mark my words

2024-01-21 18:12

Mankz is just the better danish igl

2024-01-21 19:14

Oof not even 2nd best in their region

2024-01-21 19:18

Expected for NA

2024-01-21 20:17

karma for throwing that 3v1 on map1

2024-01-21 22:29

m80 NA's last hope

2024-01-21 23:15

honestly this might be hindsight but is this Liquid roster really that stacked? Cadian's a great IGL, but other than him we have: Zews who's not been in tier 1 for years. Skullz who is a young Brazilian talent but inexperienced and unproven. Yekindar who was always inconsistent but was pretty bad when IGLing, it was really a gamble to keep him tbh, just assuming that it was calling that made him worse and not that teams figured him out Naf who was average on EU Liquid, easily their best player but I dont think he's going to be a superstar anymore. and twistzz, who again, like naf, is solid but not good enough to be a superstar. idk people who were calling this a top 5-team-title-contender I think missed the mark, and were just looking at name value over logic, like the people who thought NRG would be a top NA team

2024-01-21 23:20

6 replies

so what? faze clan and g2 have coaches who havent been tier 1 for years yet it didnt stop scam clan from stealing low tier trophies and making blast finals twice. stop the cap bro. yekindar was literally 8th best player playing the hardest role in the game and #15 in 2022 sharing duties with nitr0, now he is going to be focusing on his game again without thinking about macro stuff, it's all up to cadian now, it's totally irrelevant that he was bad when he tried to igl. naf in eu lineup was avrage because rainwaker stole lurk role on t side from naf, he still was the best player on the lineup. twistzz who carried faze bums to some finals and trophies cant be a superstar? OK. Not saing he was a carry on faze, but he had his moments when his impact was decisive, he didnt win any mvp cuz 1) awp abusers will always be favourites to steal MVPs unless you are Niko 2) baiter robz The only question mark on this lineu is skullz. You are deffo overreacting due to one match against onliners. When heroic brought jabbi they got bombed out from cologne without taking a map from weak NIP and MOUZ. Few months after the were playing at the major grand final, won against prime faze and made it to multiple finals. This lineup is upcoming top 5, all players are extremely skillfull, but Liquid needs a bit of time, i trust Cadian with cooking. Any cs enthusiast with a bit of cs knowledge knew NRG was a trash team. You take trash pieces from EG, bench warmer who was a problem on Complexity, then add daps (even though he looked good on nrg i'll give him that credit) - looks like a good recepie for disaster.

2024-01-22 01:09

Maybe I am overreacting but I'm not sure this can be a title contender. With the coach it depends on the kind of coach a team wants. Neo can definitely be the same kind of coach as Robban, which seems like the coach faze needs. But do Liquid need a coach like that, or a coach like blade? Yeah naf was definetely suffering from his bad roles but I'm just not sure if he'll be able to perform at the level this Liquid will need from him, that is a consistent star. I'd love to be proven wrong. Yekindar had a massive dry spell in his rookie year (2021 iirc?) after teams figured him out, and my worry is that he has been found out again, and his form on NA Liquid was because of his break where teams had forgotten how to play against him. Again I'd be happy to be proven wrong. Twistzz is good, but it's not that he's a bad player it's that he's not a "star". He's not going to be like Elige or Spinx or Stavn, he'll do his job, but he needs to do more in this roster imo. I'd like to be proven wrong 100%, I like most of these players and want them to succeed, but I feel like it's missing an X factor that other title contenders have. They have a bunch of good players, but no great players, if you know what I mean. (and losing to a weak NIP and MOUZ is not the same as losing to a tier 2 NA team but I get your point)

2024-01-22 02:02

ENCE was a stable top 4 team and was considered a title contender team right? What kind of X factor this mid team had? Just dont say it's Sunpayus pls, blud was only good againt zywoo

2024-01-22 02:59

Fair point, but both nertz and sunpayus has more star power than anyone on this liquid in my opinion. Both wee we re able to consistently frag out, and it’s not like dycha and maden didn’t have their moments. That’s the issue for me, this roster feels like three dycha/madens. Solid players, but not quite stars

2024-01-22 04:27

saying that nertz has more star power is disrespectful towards naf, twistz and primarly yekindar... nertz was missing during play-off matches

2024-01-22 05:06

I’m not saying that those three can’t perform to nertz’ level, but I don’t think they can perform to his level consistently. Yekindar can definitely have games better than nertz’ peak, but that’s probably 1 in every 10 maps

2024-01-22 13:41

bEST tEAM iN nA cONFIRMED

2024-01-21 23:42

AHAHSJVDVSVSVXBAV

2024-01-22 02:43

Nt Liquid :( Hopefully you will do better at the RMR

2024-01-22 03:48

Good job Liquid

2024-01-22 03:50

Meh, first matches for a new team, also M80 is not bad by any stretch. Any competition in NA is great for the scene here. Gotta love to see the haters come out in droves to talk shit tho

2024-01-22 04:43

WTF?.

2024-01-22 21:58

How to get the visa for malbsMd? Guatemala doesn't have diplomatic relations with PRC as far as I know. I‘ve been’ thinking about this issue before and now it comes true lmao

2024-01-24 16:18