Cloud9 defeated TSM 2-0 (Train 16-3, Cache 16-12) at the Americas Minor to secure the second spot at the upcoming Major Qualifier.

Hunter "⁠SicK⁠" Mims picked up three USP-S kills defending the Ivy area of Train to start the match, but his team was quickly overwhelmed, resulting in Cloud9 taking the pistol round. Jordan "⁠n0thing⁠" Gilbert's team continued strong, taking a 5-0 lead thanks to a smartly played 1v3 from the 26-year-old.

TSM got a round on the board to make it 5-1, but were promptly reset as their double-AWP setup was unable to deal with Cloud9's fast A execute.

At 11-2, Timothy "⁠autimatic⁠" Ta managed to get a forward position on the A site to help out his team's attack, but Skyler "⁠Relyks⁠" Weaver's kill on the bomb planter combined with the low amount of time remaining got TSM the third round of the game.

After finishing the half 12-3 down, Kory "⁠SEMPHIS⁠" Friesen and co. were in dire need of the Terrorist pistol round, but were once again unable to capitalize on their openings. n0thing and Tyler "⁠Skadoodle⁠" Latham combined for three kills, making it 13-3 and effectively closing out the first match.

In the end it was 16-3, as TSM's force-buy attempts ended up being unsuccessful.



Cloud9 weren't really tested on Train

Pujan "⁠FNS⁠" Mehta's team finally won a pistol on Cache, getting a 3-0 lead to start the second map of the series. Unfortunately for them, they weren't able to continue with the momentum as Skadoodle picked up a double kill with the AWP to help his team get the first gun round.

Following that, Cloud9 took over the momentum, with a 2v4 retake of the A bombsite in round 9 being crucial in their run.

At 8-3, Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken traded two for one as Cloud9 tried to aggresive on the B site and his team managed to convert the lead to get another round. In the end that was all they got as Terrorists, as Cloud9 closed it out 11-4.

The second pistol round went the way of TSM as well, but this time they were able to string a couple of rounds together, shrinking their deficit to five rounds.

Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip got an opener for his team that then made it 12-8, but Cloud9 were reset straight after that, as a frantic round on B went the way of TSM. Just as the match got tied at 12-12, Skadoodle stepped up with three AK-47 kills on the B site offensive.

That ended up being all they needed, as the low-economy TSM wasn't able to hold on against autimatic and co. anymore, and ended up losing the map 16-12.

Americas Minor - ELEAGUE Major 2017 Best of 3 Cloud9 Matchpage 2 0 TSM 16 Train 3 16 Cache 12

Cloud9 K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Tyler 'Skadoodle' LathamSkadoodle 41 - 22 +19 83.6 1.52 Jake 'Stewie2K' YipStewie2K 36 - 31 +5 93.4 1.37 Timothy 'autimatic' Taautimatic 41 - 29 +12 87.4 1.32 Jordan 'n0thing' Gilbertn0thing 35 - 28 +7 84.3 1.24 Mike 'shroud' Grzesiekshroud 27 - 27 0 55.1 1.09 TSM K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Hunter 'SicK' MimsSicK 36 - 34 +2 83.3 0.99 Kory 'SEMPHIS' FriesenSEMPHIS 29 - 35 -6 66.8 0.93 Russel 'Twistzz' Van DulkenTwistzz 24 - 37 -13 65.9 0.76 Skyler 'Relyks' WeaverRelyks 26 - 37 -11 70.8 0.76 Pujan 'FNS' MehtaFNS 21 - 37 -16 50.0 0.57

Final standings for the Americas Minor:

- Major Qualifier Immortals - Major Qualifier - Major Qualifier Cloud9 - Major Qualifier TSM Muffin Lightning

With the Americas Minor being brought to the end, we have the final team list for the Major Qualifier:

Professeur writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter.