The battle is over – now we know all the participants of upcoming ESL One Rio Minor Championships. As usual, the European qualifier was the toughest one. A lot of decent teams took part in it, and 8 of them are now out of the boat. We are here with a small recap and conclusion of ESL One Rio European Minor Closed Qualifier.

Swedish invasion

This is the second time in CS:GO history when 3 three teams with a Swedish core are going to fight for the Major spots (the first time was Columbus 2016 Minor). Also, an important fact that nobody will be surprised if Dignitas, Ninjas in Pyjamas and fnatic will take all the top places at the minor.

Source: NiP twitter

Three teams, three different situations:

Fnatic haven’t qualified to StarLadder Berlin Major 2019 and had to make their way to the Major again – it’s just ridiculous that the sixth team of the world by HLTV ranking is going to play the Minor;

Ninjas in Pyjamas are struggling after the recent roster change – they still can’t find a key to success with Tim “nawwk” Jonasson, but the team has been working hard to show their best. However, NiP are still unstable and who knows what could happen with Ninjas;

Dignitas is just like a pig in a poke. They have been playing decently in the minor quals, but the team is recently formed anyway, so the stability is under the question.

Movistar Riders shine bright

Some people were curious and couldn’t understand the direct invite of Movistar Riders to the closed quals by ESL Ranking, but now look: Movistar Riders were fighting hard in the lower bracket of the closed qualifier and defeated BIG in the match for the spot, winning Inferno as decider map with 16:4 score.

It’s not a sensation, Movistar Riders with Lucas “steel” Lopes and the Spanish core is a decent team, but, honestly, after a tough loss versus Dignitas this success was unexpected.

Now then, imagine the Spanish team at the Major. How do you like it?

BIG disaster

The German team has been experiencing issues for a long time – for now they have switched to Germany-speaking squad and set the stable roster with the good background support of coaching staff.

BIG couldn't find success at closed minor quals

Unfortunately, it didn’t help. BIG showed a couple of decent events recently, but does it matter if they haven’t even qualified to the minor?

The quals seemed fine for BIG: they started the way with a clear victory over Nordavind, but couldn’t contest Ninjas in Pyjamas and the fall in the battle versus Movistar Riders.

Roster changes should be strongly expected, we guess.

Let OG have more time

People are talking about OG too much right now. But could it be different having Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen and more disputable and famous players in the team?

OG successfully qualified to the final stage of BLAST Pro Series Spring Season, but you can’t claim them for loss at the minor quals.

The team is young and recently formed, the team is international so then they need time to set proper communication, and the more important fact is that they have been practising with a coach only a bit more than a month.



Don’t expect great results from them instantly, it’s almost impossible to set the top team for a couple of months.

OG will shine, but later.

Danish upset

Wow, that was unexpected. Heroic pretended to be a confident tier-2 team for recent months, and it was a high probability of them to pass the closed qualifier.

In the Scandinavian derby in the lower bracket, they were defeated by Copenhagen Flames. It was a hard battle, but Copenhagen Flames were better in the endgame – 13:16, 14:16.

Heroic are out of the competition.



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