AVANGAR have booked their spot at the ELEAGUE Major Main Qualifier after defeating Quantum Bellator Fire on three maps.

With only four teams left in contention, the knockout stages kicked off with a match between pro100 and Quantum Bellator Fire, which the Russian team won 2-0, the same scoreline by which AVANGAR would move past Spirit in the second encounter of the day.

The Upper Bracket final kicked off on Inferno, where the first half was keenly contested as neither side could stamp their authority on the game. Down 8-7, AVANGAR won six of the first eight rounds of the second half, preventing Quantum Bellator Fire from building up an economy. A successful B stack in an eco round then swung the momentum back in the Russians' favour as they would embark on a six-round streak to secure first blood in the series.

dimasick & co will be in Atlanta for the Major qualifier

Next up was Mirage, where Quantum Bellator Fire won the opening pistol round and an anti-eco before collapsing against the Kazakhstani team, who took 12 rounds into the second half. With a quad-kill from Alexey "⁠qikert⁠" Golubev in the balcony, AVANGAR piled more misery on the Russian team, who then surprisingly won a force-buy.

Quantum Bellator Fire added two more rounds to their tally, bringing the scoreline to 13-6, but after getting their economy back in order, AVANGAR continued their dominant display, picking up three rounds in a row to seal a 16-6 finish.

It all came down to Cache, where Quantum Bellator Fire closed out the first half with a 9-6 lead, with Kirill "⁠Boombl4⁠" Mikhailov winning a 1v2 in the final round. Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali topped that by clutching a 1v3 situation in the following pistol round, keeping AVANGAR in the game.

That pistol round propelled the Kazakhstani team into a 13-9 lead, but then Quantum Bellator Fire's offence came to life. The Russian team picked up four rounds in a row to equalise the game, but AVANGAR did not let a comeback happen, winning three rounds without response to seal a hard-fought 2-1 win.

CIS Minor - ELEAGUE Major 2018 Best of 3 Quantum Bellator Fire Matchpage 1 2 AVANGAR 16 Inferno 13 6 Mirage 16 13 Cache 16

Quantum Bellator Fire K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Aurimas 'Kvik' KvakšysKvik 60 - 56 +4 78.8 1.08 Kirill 'Boombl4' MikhailovBoombl4 58 - 50 +8 74.9 1.08 Gregory 'balblna' Oleinickbalblna 50 - 55 -5 75.9 1.02 Savelii 'jmqa' Braginjmqa 39 - 56 -17 65.2 0.84 Nikita 'waterfaLLZ' MatveyevwaterfaLLZ 43 - 62 -19 58.8 0.77 AVANGAR K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Dmitry 'dimasick' Matvienkodimasick 64 - 50 +14 87.7 1.28 Alexey 'qikert' Golubevqikert 60 - 53 +7 78.7 1.17 Aidyn 'KrizzeN' TurlybekovKrizzeN 54 - 49 +5 74.3 1.08 Dzhami 'Jame' AliJame 49 - 44 +5 68.7 1.07 Timur 'buster' Tulepovbuster 52 - 54 -2 72.3 1.06

The list of participants for the Major Qualifier, which will take place from January 12-15 at the ELEAGUE Arena, currently looks as follows: