Five out of six advancing teams likely to skip YaLLa LAN as qualifier shakes up MRQs

One of the final VRS-ranked events in Europe before Austin Major invites are sent out had far more on the line than spots at the $600,000 LAN.

The team list for YaLLa Compass Qatar has been filled following the conclusion of the two-day, 12-team qualifier, with Complexity, BetBoom, ENCE, Partizan, Nemiga, and 9 Pandas earning spots at the LAN scheduled to run from April 16-19.

However, the team list for the $600,000 event, which also features Astralis among the invited sides, will likely see several teams drop out and need to be replaced before it starts because of its dates overlapping with the BLAST.tv Austin Major's Regional Major Qualifiers.

MRQ on the line

The Qatar qualifier was one of the final VRS-ranked events in Europe before invites are sent out for the Austin Major and its MRQs on April 7, with only the BetBoom LanDaLan 2 qualifier and Tipsport Cup Spring Finals yet to play out.

You can find a prediction of what the April 7 ranking and Major invites would look like here.

As such, stakes were high for several teams playing the qualifier, particularly those at the bottom or just below the cut-off in the Europe MRQ standings, while a spot at the YaLLa event was a secondary prize or not one at all.

Complexity could have double-dipped if they leapfrogged M80 in our April 7 Americas ranking, which would have earned COL a Stage 2 invite to the Major and allowed them to play in Qatar.

Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou's side put up a flawless 5-0 record in their round-robin, best-of-one group, including a 13-0 over Imperial Valkyries and only one close match against Metizport, but even with that effort are currently projected to finish 14 points short of M80.

Five out of six qualified teams likely to skip Qatar

That means Complexity would have to go to North America to play in the MRQ, scheduled for April 15-17, which overlaps with the dates for YaLLa Qatar.

The same goes for Astralis, Nemiga, and BetBoom, who need to remain in Europe for the MRQ that will run from April 14-17, and is very likely the case for ENCE and 9 Pandas who now sit just above the MRQ cut-off after going 4-1 and 3-2, respectively, in their groups.

Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander's side started the qualifier out of MRQ contention but earned just enough points with their final win over ECLOT to give them a provisional spot.

9 Pandas also beat Metizport in their last match to secure the LAN spot — which they will likely have to skip — and put the Swedes in the danger zone as the final team at the cut-off, with ECLOT having a very small, outside chance to steal it away if they win the Tipsport LAN.

Partizan are the only one out of the six teams that qualified who aren't in MRQ contention, earning themselves a LAN berth with a 4-1 record in Group B that featured wins over BetBoom and ECLOT and a loss to ENCE.

Metizport, meanwhile, are left in particularly dire straits after losing maps in overtime to Complexity and 9 Pandas and getting blown out by Nemiga, leaving them on the brink of falling out of MRQ contention mere days after they fell short of qualifying for PGL Astana to Ninjas in Pyjamas.

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Imperial Valkyries' 0-5 record in the qualifier — which featured two 0-13 defeats and a combined 12 rounds across their other three games — added further misery to the team's dismal run of results in non-women's only tournaments since the start of the year, dispeling any remaining vestige of hope that might have lingered since their BLAST Bounty game against NAVI.

YaLLa Compass Qatar qualifier final standings: