APAC RMR: East Asia Open Qualifier concludes

After a grueling first day's play in the East Asian open qualifier, Glamour, IHC, THE, -72c, NomadS, SUBUTAI, The QUBE and ARAVT stood the test of time, locking in their quarter-final appearance. A single-elimination main playoffs bracket was set to be followed by a fifth place decider bracket and a third place decider match.

Four hours and eleven games down the line, five teams booked their closed qualifier berths, moving one step closer to the Asia-Pacific RMR leading up to the Perfect World Shanghai 2024 Major. Here's a quick look at how these teams made it to the closed qualifier.

IHC (1st place)

IHC started their playoffs run against ARAVT, where they found themselves in a tricky position in the first half of Ancient but managed to recover and turn things around in overtime. IHC put up a 2-0 against ARAVT, confirming their closed qualifier spot. Winning their seeding matches against NomadS and THE, IHC put up a flawless playoffs campaign.

THE (2nd place)

THE faced The QUBE in the qualification round. The first map took us to Ancient where THE QUBE held a slight advantage in the first half but a 1.94 rating T-side from krc, alongside kaito and lakyo's 1.75 rating performances netted THE 8 rounds in a row, taking the map away from The QUBE.

The Mongolian side could not recover from their first loss, as THE put up a 10-2 T-half on Vertigo, eventually closing out the 13-8, to confirm their closed qualifier slot. THE won their first seeding game against -72c but lost the grand-final against IHC.

-72c (3rd place)

-72c got off to a 0-4 start on the CT-side of Mirage against SUBUTAI but the Russians still managed to salvage a 6-6 half, breaking even. A ballistic T-side performance from borosto saw -72c drop just a couple of rounds on the T-side, to close out Mirage 13-8. borosto held a massive 137 ADR, with 26 frags at a HLTV rating of 1.99.

It was a borosto show on Anubis once again, as the Mongolian side was put at a 3-9 disadvantage in the first half. SUBUTAI started well in the second half but -72c's lead played out in their favor as they traded their way across the line, 13-8, to head into the closed qualifier. -72c conceded their bo1 seeding match against THE.

NomadS (4th place)

Probably the most nonchalant qualification in this RMR circuit, NomadS were set to take on Glamour in their qualification match but the latter failed to field a full roster on time, giving a default win to NomadS and a free pass into the closed qualifier. NomadS were stomped by IHC in their bo1 seeding match that followed.

Glamour (5th place)

After sorting out their roster issues, Glamour went into the fifth place decider bracket, where they started their run with a 13-10 win over ARAVT, setting up their qualification match against SUUBUTAI. Ne1XXX was brutal on the CT-side, disrupting SUBUTAI's plays round after round. He finished the map with a 1.46 rating and an ADR of 126 as Glamour took Ancient 13-4.

SUBUTAI put up a sterner fight on Mirage, going round for round in the first half but a flawless CT-side from Glamour, crashed the Mongolian side out of the qualifier, as Glamour closed out Mirage 13-6 and wrapped up a 2-0 series, clinching the last closed qualifier spot.