Nordavind and Japaleno through to the Europe Minor Closed Qualifier

Nordavind and Japaleno are the first two teams to make it through the European Minor's Open Qualifier, with six more to join them from three more Open Qualifiers, and where they will meet eight invited teams for as many slots in the Minor.

Nordavind come from adding Morten "⁠zEVES⁠" Vollan Christensen to the roster right before starting the qualifying process to the Minor, and beat teams like Conquer—who eliminated Tempo Storm—and Imperial on their way to qualification, with Haakon "⁠Radifaction⁠" Tholo and Håkon "⁠hallzerk⁠" Fjærli putting in several good maps each to secure a spot in the closed qualifier.

Radifaction played great CS to help his team through

Their final match of the day against Imperial, saw the Norwegian side take Train (16-10) and Nuke (16-6) despite having lost the opening map, Dust2 (13.16), with Radifaction posting a 106.1 ADR average in the series.

Europe Minor Open Qualifier 1 - FACEIT Major 2018Best of 3 NordavindMatchpage 2 1 3rd June 2018 Imperial 13Dust2 16 16Train 10 16Nuke 6

Nordavind	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Haakon 'Radifaction' TholoRadifaction	72 - 50	+22	106.1	1.50
Håkon 'hallzerk' Fjærlihallzerk	71 - 42	+29	83.6	1.38
Jon 'ztk' Erik Øygardenztk	48 - 44	+4	66.8	1.01
Henrik 'baby' Beckerbaby	53 - 55	-2	72.0	0.99
Morten 'zEVES' Vollan ChristensenzEVES	47 - 55	-8	71.6	0.99

Imperial	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Žygimantas 'nukkye' Chmieliauskasnukkye	55 - 53	+2	81.4	1.10
Nemanja 'nexa' Isakovićnexa	57 - 60	-3	86.1	1.03
Kevin 'kRYSTAL' AmendkRYSTAL	51 - 55	-4	74.2	1.02
Jesper 'TENZKI' PlougmannTENZKI	41 - 60	-19	67.1	0.82
Rokas 'EspiranTo' MilasauskasEspiranTo	42 - 63	-21	57.5	0.70

On the other side of the bracket, it was Japaleno who made it all the way, as the former Red Reserve players who in May said they were motivated to continue together beat teams such as fnatic Academy and Singularity to assure their assistance in the closed qualifier.

Japaleno won the Swedish derby against Singularity

The match against Singularity, who are back to playing with Hugo "⁠HugoXD⁠" Hallgren after things didn't work out with Andreas "⁠znajder⁠" Lindberg, took three maps, of which Japaleno won Inferno (16-12), lost Nuke (12-16), and sealed the deal on Overpass (16-8) where the whole team stepped up.

Europe Minor Open Qualifier 1 - FACEIT Major 2018Best of 3 JapalenoMatchpage 2 1 3rd June 2018 Singularity 16Inferno 12 12Nuke 16 16Overpass 8

Japaleno	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Joakim 'Relaxa' GustafssonRelaxa	74 - 44	+30	85.2	1.43
Fredrik 'FREDDyFROG' GustafssonFREDDyFROG	63 - 45	+18	96.8	1.41
Linus 'Bååten' AnderssonBååten	68 - 52	+16	87.6	1.33
Niclas 'PlesseN' PlessenPlesseN	57 - 52	+5	85.1	1.20
Daniel 'djL' NarancicdjL	41 - 51	-10	60.0	0.92

Singularity	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Nicolas 'Plopski' Gonzalez ZamoraPlopski	54 - 57	-3	67.0	0.97
Alfred 'RuStY' KarlssonRuStY	52 - 62	-10	73.7	0.94
Benjamin 'BENDJI' SöderenaBENDJI	50 - 58	-8	73.3	0.90
André 'BARBARR' MöllerBARBARR	51 - 62	-11	71.2	0.85
Hugo 'HugoXD' HallgrenHugoXD	37 - 65	-28	58.9	0.69

Andreas 'znajder' Lindberg Age: 25 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 897 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.67 fnatic Academy #91 Matej 'MaTaFe' FekonjaJohan 'Meddo' LundborgAlexander 'AlekS' AnderssonAdam 'ec1s' Eccles Hugo 'HugoXD' Hallgren Age: 18 Team: Singularity Rating 1.0: 0.95 Maps played: 186 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.69 Håkon 'hallzerk' Fjærli Age: 17 Team: Nordavind Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 108 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.69 Imperial #36 Jesper 'TENZKI' PlougmannNemanja 'nexa' IsakovićRokas 'EspiranTo' MilasauskasŽygimantas 'nukkye' Chmieliauskas Japaleno #49 Fredrik 'FREDDyFROG' GustafssonJoakim 'Relaxa' GustafssonNiclas 'PlesseN' PlessenLinus 'Bååten' AnderssonDaniel 'djL' Narancic Morten 'zEVES' Vollan Christensen Age: 27 Team: Nordavind Rating 1.0: 0.85 Maps played: 237 KPR: 0.60 DPR: 0.71 Singularity #51 André 'BARBARR' MöllerBenjamin 'BENDJI' SöderenaAlfred 'RuStY' KarlssonHugo 'HugoXD' HallgrenNicolas 'Plopski' Gonzalez Zamora Nordavind #95 Morten 'zEVES' Vollan ChristensenHenrik 'baby' BeckerJon 'ztk' Erik ØygardenHåkon 'hallzerk' FjærliHaakon 'Radifaction' Tholo Red Reserve Haakon 'Radifaction' Tholo Age: 19 Team: Nordavind Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 113 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.71 Tempo Storm #61 Ricardo 'fox' PachecoPaweł 'innocent' MocekChristian 'loWel' Garcia AntoranAitor 'SOKER' FernándezKevin 'HS' Tarn Conquer Topi 'sNOBI' HartikkaOtto 'dreamer' HämäläinenSamuli 'Twixie' HerralaSamu 'Samppa' Kylmälä