Team Liquid, Tempo Storm, and CLG are the three North American teams who have secured spots at DreamHack Masters Malmö via the North American closed qualifier bracket.

The $250,000 DreamHack Masters Malmö event taking place from April 12-17 in Sweden's third largest city will see eight invited teams (most of whom fall into our top eight Global Ranking) battle with eight who have advanced via four separate regional qualifiers, two for Europe and one apiece for North America and Asia.

The North American qualifier for DreamHack Masters Malmö similarly featured eight invited teams such as Cloud9, Liquid, and Renegades battling eight teams coming from an open qualifier for three spots to the Swedish tournament.



hen1 had a phenomenal performance throughout the qualifier

The single elimination, best-of-three bracket saw the likes of Echo Fox, Splyce, NRG, and OpTic drop out by the round of eight, with the latter two teams playing close games against Cloud9 and Tempo Storm respectively.

The first decider game to take place was between North American rivals Liquid and CLG with the former team sporting their newfound addition Kenneth "⁠koosta⁠" Suen as well as the talk-of-the-town in Aleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev.

The series was a complete blowout as Liquid dismantled CLG 16-1 on de_mirage and 16-4 on de_dust2.

DreamHack Masters Malmö 2016 NA Closed Qualifier Best of 3 CLG Matchpage 0 2 Liquid 1 Mirage 16 4 Dust2 16

Liquid K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Jonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEliGE 37 - 16 +21 101.2 1.75 Nick 'nitr0' Cannellanitr0 35 - 18 +17 109.5 1.67 Spencer 'Hiko' MartinHiko 34 - 13 +21 88.2 1.65 Aleksandr 's1mple' Kostylievs1mple 32 - 21 +11 89.0 1.44 Kenneth 'koosta' Suenkoosta 31 - 20 +11 80.8 1.28 CLG K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 James 'hazed' Cobbhazed 16 - 32 -16 63.1 0.67 Tarik 'tarik' Celiktarik 17 - 32 -15 56.8 0.64 Josh 'jdm64' Marzanojdm64 17 - 34 -17 55.6 0.60 Stephen 'reltuC' CutlerreltuC 22 - 35 -13 65.9 0.60 Jacob 'FugLy' MedinaFugLy 16 - 36 -20 49.3 0.44

The second semifinal was a repeat of the IEM Katowice North American qualifier final as Cloud9 and Tempo Storm dueled for a slot; the Brazilian team clinched de_inferno 16-8 whereas Cloud9 took de_train 16-10.

The final map saw Tempo Storm overwhelming Jordan "⁠n0thing⁠" Gilbert and his men on their T-side as they finished the first half up 12-3 however a minor attempt at a comeback by Cloud9 did give the Brazilians a moment's hesitation before they closed out de_dust2 16-8.

DreamHack Masters Malmö 2016 NA Closed Qualifier Best of 3 Cloud9 Matchpage 1 2 Tempo Storm 8 Inferno 16 16 Train 10 8 Dust2 16

Tempo Storm K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Henrique 'HEN1' TelesHEN1 62 - 32 +30 91.2 1.52 João 'felps' Vasconcellosfelps 63 - 49 +14 92.2 1.26 Ricardo 'boltz' Prassboltz 62 - 44 +18 86.9 1.24 Lucas 'LUCAS1' TelesLUCAS1 38 - 45 -7 66.7 0.96 Gustavo 'SHOOWTiME' GonçalvesSHOOWTiME 38 - 51 -13 56.1 0.80 Cloud9 K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Tyler 'Skadoodle' LathamSkadoodle 54 - 47 +7 74.5 1.09 Jake 'Stewie2K' YipStewie2K 51 - 58 -7 75.5 1.02 Ryan 'freakazoid' Abadirfreakazoid 45 - 52 -7 67.1 0.93 Mike 'shroud' Grzesiekshroud 41 - 53 -12 64.9 0.86 Jordan 'n0thing' Gilbertn0thing 30 - 53 -23 53.2 0.71

CLG and Cloud9 then locked horns in the third place decider to settle which team would be the third and final to represent North America in Malmö.

Despite a sluggish start on de_cache, CLG put up a defensive wall on their CT side and took the map 16-12. The second map of de_cbble was also a story of CLG's strong defensive game as Stephen "⁠reltuC⁠" Cutler & co. took the map 16-3 off of the back of a 12-3 CT side.

DreamHack Masters Malmö 2016 NA Closed Qualifier Best of 3 CLG Matchpage 2 0 Cloud9 16 Cache 12 16 Cobblestone 3

CLG K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Tarik 'tarik' Celiktarik 45 - 27 +18 100.8 1.48 Josh 'jdm64' Marzanojdm64 36 - 23 +13 70.7 1.30 Stephen 'reltuC' CutlerreltuC 37 - 26 +11 83.7 1.27 James 'hazed' Cobbhazed 33 - 26 +7 87.8 1.24 Jacob 'FugLy' MedinaFugLy 32 - 28 +4 75.2 1.12 Cloud9 K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Mike 'shroud' Grzesiekshroud 32 - 34 -2 75.1 0.89 Ryan 'freakazoid' Abadirfreakazoid 28 - 35 -7 70.9 0.87 Jake 'Stewie2K' YipStewie2K 27 - 38 -11 64.9 0.80 Tyler 'Skadoodle' LathamSkadoodle 21 - 37 -16 50.7 0.67 Jordan 'n0thing' Gilbertn0thing 21 - 40 -19 61.2 0.63

The current list of teams who will attend DreamHack Masters Malmö is:

The next qualifier will be the first European qualifier which will run from March 12-13.

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