FURIA take down Ghost to qualify for ESL One Cologne

FURIA punched their ticket to ESL One Cologne after defeating Ghost 3-2 in the grand final of the North American qualifier.

The final day of the qualifier, featuring eight teams in a double-elimination bracket, began with the consolidation final, pitting FURIA against Lazarus in a rematch of the high-quality round one encounter. Jordan "⁠Zellsis⁠" Montemurro's side had run out 2-1 victors then, but this time around they were no match for the fearsome Brazilians, who picked up a 2-0 victory without letting their opponents hit double digits on either map.

Having come from the upper bracket, Ghost enjoyed an automatic one-map advantage, but that lead was quickly turned around as FURIA took Inferno and Nuke off the back of great individual performances from their star players, Yuri "⁠yuurih⁠" Santos and Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato.

FURIA qualify for ESL One Cologne

Ghost were not willing to let things get out of hand and restored parity in the series with a hard-fought win on Overpass, the most contested map of this match-up, with Kenneth "⁠koosta⁠" Suen putting in a 1.50 rating to help his team to overturn a 5-10 deficit. In the end, it amounted to nothing, as the North Americans were neutralised by a superb all-round performance from FURIA on Cache.

ESL One Cologne 2019 North America Closed QualifierBest of 5 GhostMatchpage 2 3 12th May 2019 FURIA 1Default 0 9Inferno 16 11Nuke 16 16Overpass 14 8Cache 16

Ghost	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Kenneth 'koosta' Suenkoosta	71 - 75	-4	82.3	1.04
Matthew 'WARDELL' YuWARDELL	68 - 73	-5	66.0	0.97
Joshua 'steel' Nissansteel	53 - 82	-29	62.6	0.81
Jason 'neptune' Tranneptune	57 - 79	-22	61.3	0.78
Ryan 'freakazoid' Abadirfreakazoid	61 - 83	-22	60.8	0.78

FURIA	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Kaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoKSCERATO	93 - 63	+30	91.5	1.38
Yuri 'yuurih' Santosyuurih	81 - 58	+23	82.8	1.34
Vinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoVINI	81 - 65	+16	76.4	1.20
Andrei 'arT' PiovezanarT	74 - 64	+10	82.3	1.15
Rinaldo 'ableJ' Moda JuniorableJ	62 - 61	+1	64.5	1.03

ESL One Cologne is the third Big Event on the calendar for FURIA, who have also qualified for DreamHack Masters Dallas and the ECS Season 7 Finals. The Brazilian team, who are currently ranked 17th in the world, are also expected to compete in the North American closed qualifiers for the Americas Minor, scheduled for June 12-14.

There are now just two spots up for grabs at ESL One Cologne, which will be held from July 2-7. One of them will be filled through an invite, while the other will go to the winner of the European qualifier match between HEROIC and AVANGAR, which was postponed on Saturday as Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund had to be rushed to the hospital.

The team list for ESL One Cologne now look as follows:

Astralis
ENCE
fnatic
Natus Vincere
Renegades
NRG
Vitality
Invite slot BIG
FaZe
MIBR
Ninjas in Pyjamas
MOUZ
MVP PK
FURIA
EU Qualifier #2 Kenneth 'koosta' Suen Age: 22 Team: Ghost Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 751 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.66 MIBR #7 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFernando 'fer' AlvarengaMarcelo 'coldzera' DavidEpitacio 'TACO' de MeloJoão 'felps' Vasconcellos Jordan 'Zellsis' Montemurro Age: 21 Team: Lazarus Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 439 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.68 Lazarus #84 Braxton 'swag' PierceYassine 'Subroza' TaoufikMichael 'dapr' GulinoJordan 'Zellsis' MontemurroGage 'Infinite' Green AVANGAR #14 Bektiyar 'fitch' BahytovSanjar 'SANJI' KulievTimur 'buster' TulepovAlexey 'Qikert' GolubevDzhami 'Jame' Ali Astralis #1 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif HEROIC #21 Adam 'friberg' FribergPatrick 'es3tag' HansenNiels Christian 'NaToSaphiX' SillassenMartin 'stavn' LundBenjamin 'blameF' Bremer MOUZ #12 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenChris 'chrisJ' de JongÖzgür 'woxic' EkerDavid 'frozen' ČerňanskýRobin 'ropz' Kool Yuri 'yuurih' Santos Age: 19 Team: FURIA Rating 1.0: 1.17 Maps played: 417 KPR: 0.80 DPR: 0.64 BIG #18 Fatih 'gob b' DayikJohannes 'tabseN' WodarzTizian 'tiziaN' FeldbuschJohannes 'nex' MagetIsmailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş Renegades #10 Justin 'jks' SavageAaron 'AZR' WardJoakim 'jkaem' MyrbostadSean 'Gratisfaction' KaiwaiJay 'Liazz' Tregillgas NRG #8 Damian 'daps' SteeleTarik 'tarik' CelikVincent 'Brehze' CayonteEthan 'Ethan' ArnoldTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov Natus Vincere #3 Ioann 'Edward' SukharievDanylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoEgor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' Sharipov Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato Age: 19 Team: FURIA Rating 1.0: 1.19 Maps played: 325 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.56 Martin 'stavn' Lund Age: 17 Team: HEROIC Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 480 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.71 Ghost #35 Joshua 'steel' NissanRyan 'freakazoid' AbadirKenneth 'koosta' SuenMatthew 'WARDELL' YuJason 'neptune' Tran MVP PK #26 Min-Seok 'zeff' ParkHyun-Pyo 'XigN' LeeHae-Sung 'HSK' KimSeon-Ho 'xeta' SonGu-Taek 'stax' Kim FURIA #17 Andrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosVinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoKaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoRinaldo 'ableJ' Moda Junior Ninjas in Pyjamas #9 Patrik 'f0rest' LindbergChristopher 'GeT_RiGhT' AlesundDennis 'dennis' EdmanJonas 'Lekr0' OlofssonFredrik 'REZ' Sterner fnatic #6 Richard 'Xizt' LandströmJesper 'JW' WecksellSimon 'twist' EliassonFreddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonLudvig 'Brollan' Brolin FaZe #4 Dauren 'AdreN' KystaubayevOlof 'olofmeister' KajbjerLadislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsNikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' Nygaard Vitality #11 Nathan 'NBK-' SchmittCédric 'RpK' GuipouyDan 'apEX' MadesclaireAlex 'ALEX' McMeekinMathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut ENCE #5 Aleksi 'allu' JalliJani 'Aerial' JussilaSami 'xseveN' LaasanenAleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenJere 'sergej' Salo