Ze Pug Godz, LiViD advance to Americas Minor NA closed qualifier

Ze Pug Godz and LiViD have secured spots in the North American closed qualifier for the Americas Minor after finishing top two in the second open bracket.

After finding themselves knocked out of the first open qualifier in the quarter-finals by Infinity, Spencer "⁠Hiko⁠" Martin's mix-team Ze Pug Godz were able to prevail in their second effort after swapping former NRG player and current Evil Geniuses manager Derrick "⁠LILMAN⁠" Boyne for Jason "⁠neptune⁠" Tran.

An early win over Pujan "⁠FNS⁠" Mehta' new Orgless roster and strong showings from Bradley "⁠ANDROID⁠" Fodor against New England Whalers and Prospects quickly earned the mix a spot in the semi-finals, where ANDROID's AWP and the trio of Hiko, Noah "⁠ULTRA⁠" Giesbrecht, and neptune proved too strong a force to overcome for the MDL side of Divine.

Hiko played his first matches on HLTV in over six months

On the opposite side of the bracket, the French Canadian roster of LiViD initially struggled as they notched narrow wins over Alan Hardemanand Faint, but stabilized swiftly as they took down Mythic at the end of day one before prevailing over Polar Ace in a two-map series on the second day of play to secure qualification.

The team list for the Americas Minor North America closed qualifier now looks as follows:

Cloud9
Gen.G
eUnited
Triumph
Envy
Ze Pug Godz
NA qualifier #3
NA qualifier #4FURIA
Chaos
Riot Squad
New Identity
Rugratz
LiViD
NA qualifier #3
NA qualifier #4

The two remaining open qualifiers will award the final four spots in the closed stage of the event, set to run from March 6-8. Teams can sign up for the remaining qualifiers by clicking the links below:

Open Qualifier #3(February 8-9) - Register
Open Qualifier #4(February 12-13) - Register

Faint #158 Alex 'vek' VoynovEzekiel 'KmZ' HughesGeorge 'Powerzz' YaedeDanny 'Cxzi' StrzelczykBrian 'Brian2K' Ladron De Guevara Jason 'neptune' Tran Age: 17 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 413 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.69 Cloud9 #18 Aran 'Sonic' GroesbeekJohnny 'JT' TheodosiouRicky 'floppy' KemeryIan 'motm' HardyJosh 'oSee' Ohm Infinity #114 Francisco 'k1Nky' AlvarezAndres 'spamzzy' CorreaSantiago 'Daveeys' GalvisJesus 'sam_A' TaboadaMario 'malbsMd' Samayoa Polar Ace Jimmy 'Marved' NguyenKevin 'poised' NgoSebastian 'retchy' TropianoKevin '4pack' PrzypasniakRyan 'shanks' Ngo New England Whalers #89 Jonathan 'djay' DallalLucas 'Fiziq' BlowJosh 'PwnAlone' PigueBrandon 'bew' RobertsMarc-Andre 'NiSMO' Tayar Mythic #93 Erik 'fl0m' FlomDavid 'DAVEY' StaffordAdam 'Polen' PolenCorbin 'C0M' LeeKaitlin 'Keiti' Boop Derrick 'LILMAN' Boyne Age: 26 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.96 Maps played: 264 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.70 Rugratz #71 Alexander 'zanz' DiazJoshua 'Hunter' MadoreJordan 'Zellsis' MontemurroNathan 'leaf' OrfErik 'penny' Penny NRG Bradley 'ANDROID' Fodor Age: 25 Team: EnvyB Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 794 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.66 Orgless Pujan 'FNS' MehtaJaccob 'yay' WhiteakerYassine 'Subroza' TaoufikMatthew 'WARDELL' YuGage 'Infinite' Green Spencer 'Hiko' Martin Age: 29 Team: Ze Pug Godz Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 922 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.62 Gen.G #47 Hansel 'BnTeT' FerdinandDamian 'daps' SteeleTimothy 'autimatic' TaKenneth 'koosta' SuenSam 's0m' Oh Noah 'ULTRA' Giesbrecht Age: 21 Team: Ze Pug Godz Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 37 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.68 Envy #49 Michał 'MICHU' MüllerBuğra 'Calyx' ArkınNoah 'Nifty' FrancisRyan 'ryann' WelshKaleb 'moose' Jayne Triumph #79 Jack 'xCeeD' HolimanLogan 'Voltage' LongRyan 'Snakes' AmannMichael 'Grim' WinceGabe 'Spongey' Greiner LiViD #135 Abdo 'c4Lypso' AghaMathieu 'INCRED' BergeronAnthony 'gMd' GuimondDanny 'huynh' HuynhMichael 'MkaeL' De Luca eUnited #64 Ryan 'freakazoid' AbadirVictor 'food' WongEdgar 'MarKE' MaldonadoAustin 'Cooper' Abadir New Identity Chaos #59 Jake 'kaboose' McDonaldOwen 'smooya' ButterfieldAnthony 'vanity' MalaspinaCameron 'cam' KernBen 'ben1337' Smith Divine #103 Brenden 'stellar' McGrathBrady 'thief' DeverChris 'riku' PiaseckiRobert 'robby' BrownRahul 'curry' Nemani Pujan 'FNS' Mehta Age: 27 Team: Orgless Rating 1.0: 0.90 Maps played: 887 KPR: 0.61 DPR: 0.68 Riot Squad #34 Peter 'ptr' GurneyMitch 'mitch' SemagoJonathan 'Jonji' CareyAustin 'crashies' Roberts FURIA #19 Henrique 'HEN1' TelesAndrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosVinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoKaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato Prospects Mike 'real_bM' DesantoJosh 'JoshRT' LeeJon 'taboo' YiDylan 'Hiki' O'KaneAnthony 'CLASIA' Kearney Ze Pug Godz Spencer 'Hiko' MartinBradley 'ANDROID' FodorChristopher 'cJ dA K1nG' JonesNoah 'ULTRA' Giesbrecht