Grayhound entered the Asia Minor as the favourites to go all the way and finish on top, and they did not need long to prove their worth. The Australian team topped Group A with a 16-7 win over Energy Esports in game one and followed it up with another strong performance against AVANT.
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The series against AVANT started on Overpass, where Grayhound took a 6-1 lead before their opponents produced some resistance to whittle the margin down to one round by half-time. The second half saw the teams go back-and-forth until Grayhound found their rhythm and took seven out of the last eight rounds to win the first map 16-12.
Unlike the opening game, Nuke was anything but close. The Aussies produced what can only be described as a perfect map, winning 16-0 to seal top spot in Group A and make a big statement in the process.
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While TYLOO were not as dominant as Grayhound, they did enough to get the job done in Group B. A 16-8 win over FFAmix on Mirage put them through to the winners’ match, where they faced ALPHA Red in a Bo3 battle.
TYLOO endured a slow start to that series. They underperformed in the first map (Overpass), giving A-Red a 9-6 advantage at half-time that stretched out to a 16-8 win for the Thai side.
On Mirage, TYLOO got out to a fast start and went 3-0 up before ALPHA responded and pulled the deficit back to only one point at half-time. This time the Chinese outfit woke up in the second half, claiming seven out of eight rounds to level the series with a 16-8 win.
The third map was Train, which played out in a similar fashion to the second map. TYLOO once again exited the first half with a slight lead (9-6), only to outperform their opponents in the second half (7-3) and secure the series with a 16-9 win.
Grayhound and TYLOO now await their semi-final opponents, who they will meet on July 26. TYLOO will face off against the second-placed team from Group A, while Grayhound will test their strength against second-placed team from Group B.
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AVANT entered the repechage match after losing to Grayhound in the finals of the upper bracket on June 2. Their opponents were ORDER, who AVANT had beaten 2-1 in the quarter-finals of the upper bracket. ORDER then cruised through the lower bracket with clean sweeps against Paradox Gaming, Genuine Gaming and rewound.
The battle for the second and last ticket to the Asia Minor started off on Mirage, a map picked by AVANT. The first half of the map ended in a narrow 8-7 lead for AVANT. Both teams managed to win four rounds each at the start of the second half, but ORDER switched into a higher gear and won the next five rounds to take the opening map 16-12.
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Having performed exceptionally well on Mirage, ORDER chose Nuke for the second map. They failed to carry over their momentum, however, mostly due to their questionable defence. Despite ORDER winning a few rounds before the interval, AVANT took a three-round lead into the second half went on to square the series with a 16-11 win.
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The map that would decide it all was Train. It ran a similar course to Nuke, meaning AVANT got out to a nice lead on the CT side (7-2). ORDER tried finding an answer to their problems but failed to achieve anything more than five rounds by the end of the first half. They started performing better after the break, but that was not enough as AVANT ran way with another 16-11 win to seal it.
The best player of the day was ORDER’s Alistair “aliStair” Johnston, who ended the finals with a 1.31 HLTV rating – not quite enough to carry his team through the qualifiers and into Asia Minor.
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The two teams had smooth sailing to the finals. AVANT had to defeat ORDER in the quarter-finals and Ground Zero in the semi-finals, while Grayhound had to face off against PC419 in quarters and Genuine Gaming in the last four.
None of those opponents posed any real threat for the eventual finalists, who faced off in a Bo3 match on Sunday, June 2.
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The series started on Nuke, where we saw a dominant performance from AVANT. They led by three points by the end of first half (9-6) and did not hold back after the break, taking the first map 16-10.
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The second map of the series was Mirage, picked by Grayhound. The first half ended just like it did on Nuke, only this time it was Grayhound who were leading 9-6. Playing as CT, they almost let a five-round lead slip in the second half but held on for a 16-125 win to force a third map.
Unlike the previous maps, Inferno was heavily one-sided. Grayhound bolted out to a 2-13 in the first half, which left their opponents praying for a miracle. AVANT managed to win seven rounds but failed to prevent Grayhound from winning three more rounds, which was enough to reach 16 and seal the series.
Grayhound are the first team from the Oceania closed qualifiers to earn their spot in the Berlin 2019 Asia Minor. The second team to join them in Germqny will be decided on June 3 when AVANT face off against the winner of the ORDER vs rewound fixture.