NA Qualifiers Day 1: Taiga and K1 Debuts Are Successful
The North American Regional Qualifiers are underway, and teams are fighting for only one slot at The International 2023.
Nouns 2-1 Sand King Gomez
Nouns is arguably the highest favorite to win the entire qualifier, with their recent addition of Héctor "K1" Rodríguez. However, they showed some shaky performances today against Sand King Gomez, a team that shouldn't pose a threat.
Nouns stomped Game 1, and it looked like Game 2 would be the same result. However, SKG made a comeback after being down 8,000 gold at 27 minutes to tie the series. Still, Nouns could close it out with ease in the third game.
B8 1-2 Wildcard Gaming
The most exciting game of the day is easily B8 versus Wildcard Gaming, two teams who made significant roster changes for the qualifier. Most notably, Tommy "Taiga" Le is making his first appearance in a North American team.
Wildcard easily won the first game, but B8 answered by demolishing the second. It became a tied series, but after a close Game 3, Wildcard Gaming eventually took the victory. Dendi and the boys aren't quite out yet, as they'll have a second chance in the Lower Bracket.
Team DogChamp 2-0 Lucky Bird
Team DogChamp has shown decent results in the North American DPC, and they've come to the qualifiers as serious contenders. Fortunately for them, their opponents, Lucky Bird, weren't too challenging to beat.
The series between the two teams wasn't too exciting, as DogChamp stomped both games with ease and will move on to the next stage.
Felt 2-0 Ravens
The day ended with a series between Felt and Ravens, with Felt being the favorite to win. As expected, the Felt team could comfortably take the series in 2-0 fashion after two dominant performances from Felt's Carry and Mid players Licht and Come On.
Updated Brackets
Here are the updated brackets for the North American qualifiers with today's results.
Tomorrow, Lower Bracket matches will be played. We'll have to wait two days to watch Nouns and Wildcard Gaming back in action.