It’s the last day of ESL One Los Angeles 202 closed qualifiers. Few teams remained, but few spots as well. Let’s check what’s going on in the CIS and EU closed qualifiers.
ESL One Los Angeles 2020 CIS Closed Qualifier: VirtusPro vs Cyber Legacy
Virtus.Pro @ 1.20
Virtus.Pro and Cyber Legacy will fight in the round 1 lower bracket of CIS closed qualifier playoffs. VirtusPro surprisingly lost to HellRaisers 0-2 in the upper bracket semifinals. On the other side, Cyber Legacy expectedly lost to Natus Vincere 1-2. Close, but that doesn’t count in the end. Both teams are now in a hard situation. If they lose, they are going home, if they make one wrong step, they are going home. If they want to qualify for ESL One Los Angeles, they need to win 2 matches. Even though Virtus.Pro had a few very bad games vs HellRaisers, I think they will take Cyber Legacy down. Cyber Legacy is the weakest team in the playoffs.
ESL One Los Angeles 2020 CIS Closed Qualifier: Natus Vincere vs HellRaisers
Natus Vincere @ 1.45
Those two teams are still in the upper bracket, so the road to Los Angeles is easier for them than Virtus.Pro’s for example. NaVi and HR will face each other in the best of 3 upper bracket finals. The winner is moving on and is qualified for the ESL One Los Angeles 2020. But the loser team is still not out. The loser team will have a second chance to take that spot in a lower bracket finals. Even though HellRaisers looked very dominant vs Virtus.Pro, I think NaVi are the favourites here. Hellraisers might take a map, but the safer bet is NaVi to win the match.
ESL One Los Angeles 2020 EU Closed Qualifier: Ninjas In Pyjamas vs Aggressive Mode
Ninjas In Pyjamas @ 1.33
Team Secret and OG have already made their way to ESL One Los Angeles through the EU qualifiers. The 3rd slot is still up for grabs. NiP or Aggressive Mode? NiP lost in the upper bracket to the currently world best team, Team Secret, while Aggressive Mode lost to OG with the same 0-2 result. It’s a big surprise that Aggressive Mode even managed to get so far, but it seems like a mixed European squad is doing their job. They might even surprise NiP here, but NiP with their 2 new players is looking pretty decent for now. I would go with NiP here, even though another good bet would be Aggressive Mode to take at least 1 map (handicap 1.5).