Cloud9 eliminated from ESL One L.A Qualifiers

Open qualifiers for the ESL One Los Angeles 2020 Major got underway for most regions yesterday and for Southeast Asia, there were a host of teams which were fighting to reach the closed bracket, including Cloud9. Cloud9’s return to the Dota 2 scene was confirmed on January 29th when they announced their latest roster after two years. With some extremely strong names such as Rasmus ‘MISERY’ Filipsen and Adrei ‘skem’ Ong, C9 seemed as though they would be able to make waves in the SEA region where they would be fighting through the qualifiers for the next Major.

While the team were able to make it thorough the first day of the open qualifiers, day two did not go as planned, even after an emphatic victory over Team Uprising to open the day. In the round of eight, C9 were up against Motivade.Trust Gaming, a team that is fairly unknown to most outside the SEA region. Being a best-of-one match at this stage of the qualifier, Trust seemed ready to throw everything they had into taking down their opponents – and it worked perfectly. The loss eliminates C9 from the open qualifiers, not even reaching the closed bracket for the SEA region. While Cloud9 won’t be in the SEA region for the next set of open qualifiers, as they plan to relocate to North America, it will be a long period before they are seen again, with the next Major qualifiers only set to begin at the end of March. The SEA open qualifiers come to an end today, with only four teams remaining at time of writing – and only two spots available in the closed bracket.