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NRG are through to IEM Sydney 2018 with a 2-0 win over compLexity (16-10 on Cache and 16-9 on Nuke).

Earlier, the semifinals featured a tale of two upsets as Complexity and NRG beat OpTic and Liquid through all three maps to reach the grand final, while TeamOne, Torqued and Luminosity were swept in the previous round of the single-elimination bracket.

The grand final of the North American closed qualifier kicked off on Complexity’s map pick, Cache, where Pujan "⁠FNS⁠" Mehta and his men secured the pistol and the following anti-eco’s, thanks to back-to-back triple kills from Bradley "⁠ANDROID⁠" Fodor. NRG finally got on the board in their buy round when the squad practically walked into the B-bombsite for the plant, where Jacob "⁠FugLy⁠" Medina then held the post-plant with a triple kill. Complexity struggled to keep their economy afloat with several resets and saves that allowed NRG to take a two round lead, 5-3.

Complexity finally got on their feet with a double AWP set-up that cut the deficit within one, however, NRG returned with five straight before ANDROID settled the half with a triple kill, 10-5. Complexity continued their momentum with four straight right out of the gates, until three Deagle kills in mid from Ethan "⁠Ethan⁠" Arnold created a 4v1 situation for the CT-side to end the streak. NRG pressed on to pick up three more rounds, extending the lead to 14-9. From that point, Complexity were only able to pick up one more round before Tsvetelin "⁠CeRq⁠" Dimitrov’s double kill helped his team claim the series lead.

daps and co. are headed down under for IEM Sydney

The series then landed on Nuke, where Damian "⁠daps⁠" Steele and his men went straight down the vents to plant on B, however, Rory "⁠dephh⁠" Jackson was one step ahead and picked up two kills for the defuse to win the pistol. The following anti-eco went the way for Complexity, but another quick vent dive to lower saved the economy for NRG, who were able to buy in the next round to secure a win.

NRG went on to pick up four straight before dephh secured the 1v1 on the B-bombsite for the defuse. A back and forth affair was  going on for the remainder of the first half, though Complexity edged it with a 8-7 lead. The second half was all NRG on the CT-side as Complexity had very little economy to win more than one round. NRG pressed on to win seven straight in the series sweep to book their spot at IEM Sydney 2018.

IEM Sydney 2018 North America Closed QualifierBest of 3 NRGMatchpage 2 0 31st March 2018 Complexity 16Cache 10 16Nuke 9

NRG	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Ethan 'Ethan' ArnoldEthan	42 - 34	+8	93.9	1.33
Vincent 'Brehze' CayonteBrehze	45 - 32	+13	86.6	1.32
Jacob 'FugLy' MedinaFugLy	39 - 32	+7	85.3	1.29
Damian 'daps' Steeledaps	37 - 27	+10	76.0	1.25
Tsvetelin 'CeRq' DimitrovCeRq	37 - 28	+9	71.9	1.13

Complexity	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Rory 'dephh' Jacksondephh	34 - 39	-5	80.2	1.01
Bradley 'ANDROID' FodorANDROID	29 - 40	-11	66.5	0.84
Jaccob 'yay' Whiteakeryay	35 - 41	-6	63.6	0.82
Peter 'ptr' Gurneyptr	29 - 39	-10	60.8	0.81
Pujan 'FNS' MehtaFNS	26 - 41	-15	68.0	0.72

Several qualifiers still remain uplayed, with teams from Asia, Oceania and the GG:Origin tournament set to book spots at the $250,000 event. The 16-team list now looks as follows:

SK	FaZe
Renegades	MOUZ
Cloud9	Natus Vincere
fnatic	Astralis
GG:Origin Qual.	NRG
Asia #1	Asia #2
Asia #3	Oceania #1
Oceania #2	Oceania #3

Complexity #52 Pujan 'FNS' MehtaRory 'dephh' JacksonJaccob 'yay' WhiteakerPeter 'ptr' GurneyBradley 'ANDROID' Fodor Rory 'dephh' Jackson Age: 26 Team: Complexity Rating 1.0: 1.01 Maps played: 425 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.74 Luminosity #31 Vinicios 'PKL' CoelhoGustavo 'SHOOWTiME' GonçalvesGabriel 'NEKIZ' SchenatoGustavo 'yel' KnittelMarcelo 'chelo' Cespedes fnatic #4 Robin 'flusha' RönnquistJesper 'JW' WecksellFreddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonJonas 'Lekr0' OlofssonMaikil 'Golden' Selim Torqued #28 Braxton 'swag' PierceJoshua 'steel' NissanKeven 'AZK' LariviereKenneth 'koosta' SuenMatt 'Pollo' Wilson FaZe #1 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenOlof 'olofmeister' KajbjerLadislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsNikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' Nygaard Astralis #7 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif Damian 'daps' Steele Age: 24 Team: NRG Rating 1.0: 0.89 Maps played: 562 KPR: 0.60 DPR: 0.67 Jacob 'FugLy' Medina Age: 23 Team: NRG Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 708 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.65 Natus Vincere #6 Ioann 'Edward' SukharievDanylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoEgor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' Sharipov Ethan 'Ethan' Arnold Age: 18 Team: NRG Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 368 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.68 Renegades #11 Justin 'jks' SavageAaron 'AZR' WardJoakim 'jkaem' MyrbostadKarlo 'USTILO' PivacNoah 'Nifty' Francis SK #8 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFernando 'fer' AlvarengaRicardo 'boltz' PrassMarcelo 'coldzera' David MOUZ #3 Tomáš 'oskar' ŠťastnýChris 'chrisJ' de JongMiikka 'suNny' KemppiMartin 'STYKO' StykRobin 'ropz' Kool Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov Age: 18 Team: NRG Rating 1.0: 1.18 Maps played: 450 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.64 Bradley 'ANDROID' Fodor Age: 23 Team: Complexity Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 435 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.69 Pujan 'FNS' Mehta Age: 26 Team: Complexity Rating 1.0: 0.90 Maps played: 685 KPR: 0.62 DPR: 0.69 Cloud9 #2 William 'RUSH' WierzbaTarik 'tarik' CelikTimothy 'autimatic' Ta Liquid #5 Lucas 'steel' LopesNick 'nitr0' CannellaKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiRussel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken OpTic #33 René 'cajunb' BorgShahzeb 'ShahZaM' KhanPeter 'stanislaw' JarguzNicklas 'gade' GadeKristian 'k0nfig' Wienecke NRG #21 Damian 'daps' SteeleJacob 'FugLy' MedinaVincent 'Brehze' CayonteEthan 'Ethan' ArnoldTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov TeamOne #24 Pedro 'Maluk3' CamposJean-Michel 'mch' D'OliveiraVictor 'iDk' TorracaAlencar 'trk' RossatoPedro 'drg' Lima