The Americas Minor has, so far, not seen a single North American team advance from the tournament's group stage. Instead, Brazilian heavyweights Immortals, as well as the up and coming Luminosity Gaming squad, advanced from Group A after eliminating compLexity Gaming and NRG from the event.
While Immortals became the first team to advance, after convincing victories against Luminosity and compLexity—Luminosity were also able to move into the playoffs after defeating NRG in a best of three series. Despite being favored in the match, Luminosity struggled against NRG, who were able to bring each game of the series to an exceedingly close 16-14 scoreline—but didn't seem to be able to close things out.
Cloud9, CLG, Misfits fight for a spot at the Kraków Major
Three of the most established North American Counter-Strike: Global Offensive divisions will be taking the stage later today, as Group B of the Americas Minor features all three of these teams.
The overwhelming favorites in Group B are, without a doubt, North American veterans Cloud9, as well as the recently resurgent Counter Logic Gaming squad. Meanwhile, the Misfits roster is in an interesting position, as in-game leader Sean "seangares" Gares will not be attending the event—nor will the team's AWPer Shahzeeb "ShahZaM" Khan, who was benched last week. Instead, Skyler "Relyks" Weaver will be occupying the in-game leader role at the qualifier, while Caio "zqk" Fonseca is the designated AWPer at the event.