ESL Barcelona qualifiers conclude

Qualifiers for ESL Barcelona have concluded and four more teams that will participate in the tournament have now been decided.

Earlier this month, ESL announced that esports was returning to Barcelona, Spain with an event that would feature €75,000 in cash prizes. After inviting fnatic and EnVyUs, it was revealed that two spots each would be given out via a European qualifier and a Spanish qualifier.

The Spanish series had a closed stage after having two open tournaments. In the open stage, Epsilon (arguably Spain's best team) lost to a mix team called MixFTW and they were shockingly eliminated.

The closed stage hosted four teams and had a double-elimination format. gBots secured their spot in ESL Expo Barcelona by beating x6tence in a humiliating fashion in the winner bracket finals (16-3 on de_overpass, 16-2 on de_dust2).

x6tence managed to get over that loss and won 2-1 against yokSE, which meant they would be the second team to attend from Spain. MixFTW didn't upset more teams as they lost both of their matches and were knocked out.

Mixwell & co will play in front of their home crowd

The European contest started out with 44 teams with best-of-one matches and ended up with two semi-finals that decided the qualified teams.

In the qualification game between dignitas and CSGL, the first map was de_mirage and dignitas had a successful T-side (10-5). The Danish side started the second half very strong as well, with Ruben "⁠RUBINO⁠" Villarroel getting an ace in the eighteenth round and clutching in a 1v2 situation in the twenty-fifth round. Dignitas won thirteen of the last fourteen rounds and got the first map victory (16-5).

The story in the second map, which was de_cbble, seemed to be similar to the first one as Dignitas started 10-5, again on the T-side. In the second half, the Polish team got their hopes up but weren't able to push the Danes much. Therefore, Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen & co ensured their travel to Barcelona.

ESL Barcelona European QualifierBest of 3 DignitasMatchpage 2 0 19th January 2016 CSGL 16Mirage 5 16Cobblestone 9

Dignitas	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Ruben 'RUBINO' VillarroelRUBINO	56 - 22	+34	-	1.90
Kristian 'k0nfig' Wieneckek0nfig	44 - 25	+19	-	1.50
Markus 'Kjaerbye' KjærbyeKjaerbye	35 - 27	+8	-	1.19
Mathias 'MSL' LauridsenMSL	30 - 36	-6	-	0.92
Jesper 'TENZKI' PlougmannTENZKI	24 - 26	-2	-	0.87

CSGL	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Grzegorz 'SZPERO' DziamałekSZPERO	34 - 38	-4	-	0.99
Paweł 'innocent' Mocekinnocent	29 - 38	-9	-	0.79
Michał 'MICHU' MüllerMICHU	26 - 36	-10	-	0.75
Oskar 'oskarish' Stenborowskioskarish	24 - 38	-14	-	0.63
Mikołaj 'mouz' Karolewskimouz	22 - 39	-17	-	0.56

The second match was between Vexed from Poland and RCTIC from Finland. Vexed eliminated another Finnish team ENCE to get to the semis.

On de_dust2, Vexed kept winning in after-plant situations and got an early 9-1 lead. Despite this, they had to eco after losing another round and the Finns had the chance to put togeter a few rounds consecutively. Vexed didn't let that happen, though, and finished the first half 12-3 ahead. RCTIC looked better in the second half and picked up the first six rounds but the Poles managed to take the map (16-11).

de_cbble was the second map and it opened with RCTIC winning the pistol round but after that, Vexed dominated their opponents as they led 13-2 at the halftime. The Finnish squad won ten rounds out of the first eleven in second half but Vexed closed it out and earned the last qualifier spot (16-11).

ESL Barcelona European QualifierBest of 3 RCTICMatchpage 0 2 19th January 2016 Vexed 11Dust2 16 12Cobblestone 16

RCTIC	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Saku 'SAGGERTON' JokinenSAGGERTON	45 - 39	+6	-	1.11
Eetu 'sAw' SahasAw	44 - 41	+3	-	1.07
Sami 'xseveN' LaasanenxseveN	39 - 38	+1	-	0.93
Lasse 'ZOREE' UronenZOREE	34 - 37	-3	-	0.85
Slaava 'Twista' RäsänenTwista	30 - 37	-7	-	0.82

Vexed	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Damian 'Furlan' KislowskiFurlan	44 - 37	+7	-	1.19
Bartosz 'Hyper' WolnyHyper	37 - 33	+4	-	1.05
Dominik 'GruBy' SwiderskiGruBy	40 - 41	-1	-	1.02
Karol 'rallen' Rodowiczrallen	37 - 42	-5	-	0.88
Karol 'repo' Cybulskirepo	34 - 39	-5	-	0.87

ESL Expo Barcelona teams: 

fnatic	EnVyUs	dignitas	Vexed
gBots	x6tence	Invite Spot	Invite Spot

With these series of tournaments coming to an end, there are two international spots still available and they will be handed out to two teams decided by ESL at a later date.

Mathias 'MSL' Lauridsen Age: 21 Team: Dignitas Rating 1.0: 0.94 Maps played: 653 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.72 Ruben 'RUBINO' Villarroel Age: 21 Team: Dignitas Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 306 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.68

(责任编辑：case opening)