OpTic secure the final IEM Oakland spot

OpTic qualified for IEM Oakland 2017 by beating Renegades 2-1 in the finals of the closed qualifier (14-16 Cache, 16-10 Overpass, 16-11 Train).

OpTic started their qualification by taking down Joshua "⁠steel⁠" Nissan's Torqued 2-0, while NRG and Renegades secured the same scoreline wins over Misfits and Luminosity, respectively. The only team that put up a fight in the first round was the Swedish Tempo Storm lineup, that took Cache off of CLG, but fell 2-1 in the end.

Adam "⁠friberg⁠" Friberg's team then met NRG, with the North American side surprising them on the first map, Nuke, and taking the 16-9 win—with Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte's 32-13 K-D surely hepling the matter. Aleksi "⁠allu⁠" Jalli stepped on map 2, Overpass, as OpTic started their comeback with a 16-8 win, finishing off the series with a 16-10 on Cache.

In the other semi, Renegades blew away CLG on Cobblestone, dropping only one round, and secured the final with a confident 16-10 on Train. Ricardo "⁠Rickeh⁠" Mulholland was the only one delivering for his side in the 2-0 defeat, finishing the series with a 1.16 rating, while the second best player, Stephen "⁠reltuC⁠" Cutler, had 0.67.

The new OpTic lineup qualified for IEM Oakland

Renegades picked Cache to start off the final series, but it was OpTic who took the early lead, going six rounds to none at the start of the map. The Australians then tied together four of their own, but only finished their CT half with five and their chances to turn it around were looking slim.

However, thanks to an inspired performance by Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic against his former organization, Renegades mirrored OpTic's T side start, picking up the first five rounds. After conceding two, Renegades were able to bounce back and close out the game 16-14 with the help of the economy control.

Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage and co. had another tough start to the second map, Overpass, where allu was once again on point, finishing the CT half with a slim, 8-7 lead. Unlike on the first map, Renegades didn't get the second pistol and the much needed good start to the half and ended up losing Overpass 16-10.

Moving on to Train, we once again saw the Terrorist sides doing work, as Renegades had a great start, being 8-1 up and finishing the half with 10 rounds. However, OpTic was able to turn it around, winning the crucial rounds to make their comeback as easy as possible. In the end, the European side tied it up 16-11 to get the 2-1 victory and a slot at IEM Oakland 2017.

IEM Oakland 2017 North America Closed QualifierBest of 3 RenegadesMatchpage 1 2 3rd October 2017 OpTic 16Cache 14 10Overpass 16 11Train 16

Renegades	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Keith 'NAF' MarkovicNAF	76 - 54	+22	93.2	1.35
Justin 'jks' Savagejks	63 - 57	+6	91.9	1.20
Aaron 'AZR' WardAZR	48 - 63	-15	62.5	0.93
Noah 'Nifty' FrancisNifty	48 - 57	-9	55.8	0.87
Karlo 'USTILO' PivacUSTILO	34 - 67	-33	55.8	0.70

OpTic	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Aleksi 'allu' Jalliallu	77 - 53	+24	95.3	1.49
Emil 'Magisk' ReifMagisk	71 - 57	+14	89.0	1.29
Oscar 'mixwell' Cañellasmixwell	55 - 51	+4	71.3	1.14
Adam 'friberg' Fribergfriberg	49 - 57	-8	75.7	1.01
Kevin 'HS' TarnHS	46 - 52	-6	54.7	0.94

The tournament, which will be held on November 16-19 and will feature a $300,000 prize pool, will have the following teams in attendance:

Astralis	Cloud9
FaZe	G2
Gambit	Immortals
Liquid	Ninjas in Pyjamas
SK	The MongolZ
Envy	OpTic

NRG #28 Damian 'daps' SteeleJacob 'FugLy' MedinaVincent 'Brehze' CayonteAllan 'AnJ' JensenTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov Gambit #6 Dauren 'AdreN' KystaubayevMihail 'Dosia' StolyarovRustem 'mou' TelepovAbay 'HObbit' KhassenovBektiyar 'fitch' Bahytov Envy #15 Christophe 'SIXER' XiaCédric 'RpK' GuipouyAdil 'ScreaM' BenrlitomVincent 'Happy' SchopenhauerAlexandre 'xms' Forté SK #1 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFernando 'fer' AlvarengaMarcelo 'coldzera' DavidEpitacio 'TACO' de MeloJoão 'felps' Vasconcellos Justin 'jks' Savage Age: 21 Team: Renegades Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 399 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.63 Keith 'NAF' Markovic Age: 19 Team: Renegades Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 597 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.65 Stephen 'reltuC' Cutler Age: 28 Team: CLG Rating 1.0: 0.97 Maps played: 626 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.65 FaZe #4 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenOlof 'olofmeister' KajbjerLadislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsNikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' Nygaard CLG #18 Pujan 'FNS' MehtaStephen 'reltuC' CutlerRicardo 'Rickeh' MulhollandKenneth 'koosta' SuenEthan 'Ethan' Arnold Luminosity #22 Vinicios 'PKL' CoelhoGustavo 'SHOOWTiME' GonçalvesGabriel 'NEKIZ' SchenatoGustavo 'yel' KnittelMarcelo 'chelo' Cespedes Misfits #23 Sean 'seang@res' GaresShahzeb 'ShahZaM' KhanHunter 'SicK' MimsFrançois 'amanek' DelaunayDavid 'devoduvek' Dobrosavljevic Liquid #7 Nick 'nitr0' CannellaJosh 'jdm64' MarzanoPeter 'stanislaw' JarguzJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiRussel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken Joshua 'steel' Nissan Age: 27 Team: Torqued Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 137 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.68 Torqued #63 Joshua 'steel' NissanArmeen 'a2z' ToussiTrey 'tck' MartinNeil 'montE' MontgomerySam '4sh0t' Mariano Ninjas in Pyjamas #9 Patrik 'f0rest' LindbergChristopher 'GeT_RiGhT' AlesundRichard 'Xizt' LandströmWilliam 'draken' SundinFredrik 'REZ' Sterner The MongolZ #96 Temuulen 'Zilkenberg' BattulgaErdenedalai 'maaRaa' BayanbatTsog 'Tsogoo' MashbatEnkhtaivan 'Machinegun' LkhagvaBold 'ncl' Batsuh Immortals Lucas 'steel' LopesRicardo 'boltz' Prass Astralis #5 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzMarkus 'Kjaerbye' Kjærbye G2 #2 Richard 'shox' PapillonKenny 'kennyS' SchrubNathan 'NBK-' SchmittDan 'apEX' MadesclaireAlexandre 'bodyy' Pianaro Ricardo 'Rickeh' Mulholland Age: 25 Team: CLG Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 326 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.63 Adam 'friberg' Friberg Age: 25 Team: OpTic Rating 1.0: 1.01 Maps played: 1149 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.67 Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte Age: 19 Team: NRG Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 324 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.71 Tempo Storm #137 Kristian 'KriLLe' EkrothTobias 'shadow' FlodströmFredrik 'elo' AnnerströmLinus 'Limpone' WecksellJakob 'Barken' Bark OpTic #29 Aleksi 'allu' JalliAdam 'friberg' FribergOscar 'mixwell' CañellasKevin 'HS' TarnEmil 'Magisk' Reif Cloud9 #8 Tyler 'Skadoodle' LathamWilliam 'RUSH' WierzbaTarik 'tarik' CelikTimothy 'autimatic' TaJake 'Stewie2K' Yip Aleksi 'allu' Jalli Age: 25 Team: OpTic Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 974 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.65 Renegades #20 Justin 'jks' SavageAaron 'AZR' WardKeith 'NAF' MarkovicKarlo 'USTILO' PivacNoah 'Nifty' Francis