fnatic, FPX top IEM Winter Open Qualifier 1

The two high-profile teams have joined the likes of ENCE and MOUZ in the Closed Qualifier.

Squads that crashed out of the IEM Fall Regional Major Ranking tournament early and failed to qualify for the Major, fnatic and FunPlus Phoenix, bounced back on Sunday with a successful run through the IEM Winter open qualifier gauntlet.

The British-Swedish side that used Owen "⁠smooya⁠" Butterfield as a stand-in and the European mixture led by Luka "⁠emi⁠" Vuković have joined ENCE, Spirit, MOUZ, and Complexity in the closed qualifier, with the final two teams set to be decided through the second open qualifier on October 15-16.

smooya won't be playing the Closed Qualifier with fnatic

fnatic's qualification came at the expense of GamerLegion, K23, and finally, Galaxy Racer. The last match went the distance and required fnatic to come back from 11-4 down on Overpass to defeat Galaxy Racer on the decider. It is worth noting that the all-Swedish team was coached by Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström, who has been working with Simon "⁠twist⁠" Eliasson and co. on an informal basis since his retirement as a player in September.

Read more fnatic bench Jackinho

Despite a successful run with smooya, the British AWPer that posted a 1.35 rating across five maps played isn't expecting to compete with fnatic in the Closed Qualifier on October 18-19. fnatic could employ the services of their academy team AWPer Iulian "⁠regali⁠" Harjău or look for a different option that could fill the gap left by the benching of Jack "⁠Jackinho⁠" Ström Mattsson.

IEM Winter 2021 Europe Open Qualifier 1Best of 3 fnaticMatchpage 2 1 10th October 2021 Galaxy Racer 10Inferno 16 16Mirage 6 16Overpass 13

The path to the closed qualifier was tougher for FunPlus Phoenix, who had to beat two top-30 teams in Lyngby Vikings and Entropiq to reach the final match. Then, they managed to edge out Eternal Fire in a thriller BO3, concluding with an overtime victory on third map Nuke.

IEM Winter 2021 Europe Open Qualifier 1Best of 3 FunPlus PhoenixMatchpage 2 1 10th October 2021 Eternal Fire 16Inferno 6 14Dust2 16 19Nuke 16

Among other notable teams that were competing at the event were MIBR, who impressed in their debut with Adriano "⁠WOOD7⁠" Cerato and Matheus "⁠Tuurtle⁠" Anhaia, as well as academy player Breno "⁠brnz4n⁠" Poletto. The Brazilians beat DBL PONEY on route to the round of 16 but couldn't get any further as they were eliminated by Entropiq after overtime.

SINNERS have followed up a heartbreaking RMR run with a quarter-finals elimination by the hands of Eternal Fire, finishing in the same spot as Chinese side Lynn Vision who are bootcamping in Europe ahead of the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown.

Team list for IEM Winter 2021:

Gambit
Vitality
G2
HEROIC
Ninjas in Pyjamas
FaZe
Astralis
Virtus.pro OG
BIG
GODSENT
TYLOO
Liquid
EU Qualifier
EU Qualifier
EU Qualifier

Closed qualifier teams:

ENCE
Spirit
fnatic
FunPlus Phoenix MOUZ
Complexity
Open Qualifier #2
Open Qualifier #2 Owen 'smooya' Butterfield Age: 22 Team: Movistar RidersB Rating 1.0: 1.18 Maps played: 742 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.62 Entropiq #17 Aleksei 'NickelBack' TrofimovVladislav 'Krad' KravchenkoViktor 'Lack1' BoldyrevAleksei 'El1an' GusevIgor 'Forester' Bezotecheskiy MOUZ #15 Christopher 'dexter' NongDavid 'frozen' ČerňanskýFrederik 'acoR' GyldstrandRobin 'ropz' KoolAurimas 'Bymas' Pipiras Virtus.pro #9 Sanjar 'SANJI' KulievTimur 'buster' TulepovAlexey 'Qikert' GolubevDzhami 'Jame' AliMareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis GODSENT #36 Epitacio 'TACO' de MeloJoão 'felps' VasconcellosEduardo 'dumau' WolkmerBruno 'b4rtiN' CâmaraBruno 'latto' Rebelatto Astralis #8 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenEmil 'Magisk' ReifLucas 'Bubzkji' AndersenPhilip 'Lucky' Ewald Vitality #3 Richard 'shox' PapillonDan 'apEX' MadesclaireMathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautKévin 'misutaaa' RabierJayson 'Kyojin' Nguyen Van Eternal Fire #60 Ismailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşÖzgür 'woxic' EkerBuğra 'Calyx' ArkınIssa 'ISSAA' MuradÖmer 'imoRR' Karataş FunPlus Phoenix #35 Jesse 'zehN' LinjalaLuka 'emi' VukovićMartin 'STYKO' StykPavle 'Maden' BoškovićAsger 'Farlig' Jensen Simon 'twist' Eliasson Age: 26 Team: Galaxy Racer Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 1544 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.67 Lynn Vision #144 Heng 'expro' YangZhe 'Westmelon' NiuXueBing 'B1NGO' DaiSike 'z4kr' ZhangLizhi 'Starry' Ye HEROIC #5 Casper 'cadiaN' MøllerIsmail 'refrezh' AliMartin 'stavn' LundRené 'TeSeS' MadsenRasmus 'sjuush' Beck Galaxy Racer #65 Simon 'twist' EliassonNiclas 'PlesseN' PlessenDenis 'grux' GutajAdam 'dezon' WahlqvistHugo 'chawzyyy' Günther K23 #53 Sanzhar 'neaLaN' IskhakovBogdan 'xsepower' ChernikovDavid 'n0rb3r7' DanielyanDaniil 'X5G7V' MaryshevPetr 'fame' Bolyshev Iulian 'regali' Harjău Age: 19 Team: fnatic Rising Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 89 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.64 Ninjas in Pyjamas #6 Nicolai 'device' ReedtzFredrik 'REZ' SternerHampus 'hampus' PoserNicolas 'Plopski' Gonzalez ZamoraLinus 'LNZ' Holtäng FaZe #7 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenOlof 'olofmeister' KajbjerHåvard 'rain' NygaardRussel 'Twistzz' Van DulkenHelvijs 'broky' Saukants OG #10 Valdemar 'valde' Bjørn VangsåAleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenNikolaj 'niko' KristensenMateusz 'mantuu' WilczewskiShahar 'flameZ' Shushan fnatic #23 Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonAlex 'ALEX' McMeekinLudvig 'Brollan' BrolinWilliam 'mezii' Merriman MIBR #67 Ricardo 'boltz' PrassMarcelo 'chelo' CespedesRaphael 'exit' LacerdaAdriano 'WOOD7' CeratoMatheus 'Tuurtle' Anhaia GamerLegion #42 Patrik 'Zero' ŽúdelAlfred 'RuStY' KarlssonMihai 'iM' IvanSean 'eraa' KnutssonIsak 'isak' Fahlén Jack 'Jackinho' Ström Mattsson Age: 22 Team: fnaticB Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 147 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.67 G2 #4 Audric 'JACKZ' JugNikola 'NiKo' KovačNemanja 'huNter-' KovačFrançois 'amanek' DelaunayNemanja 'nexa' Isaković ENCE #13 Marco 'Snappi' PfeifferJoonas 'doto' ForssPaweł 'dycha' DychaOlek 'hades' MiskiewiczLotan 'Spinx' Giladi BIG #11 Johannes 'tabseN' WodarzTizian 'tiziaN' FeldbuschFlorian 'syrsoN' RischeNicklas 'gade' GadeNils 'k1to' Gruhne SINNERS #22 Tomáš 'oskar' ŠťastnýJindřich 'ZEDKO' ChybaSebastian 'beastik' DaňoMax 'SHOCK' KvapilAdam 'NEOFRAG' Zouhar Luka 'emi' Vuković Age: 28 Team: FunPlus Phoenix Rating 1.0: 0.94 Maps played: 1046 KPR: 0.64 DPR: 0.68 Complexity #18 Justin 'jks' SavagePatrick 'es3tag' HansenMarcelo 'coldzera' DavidValentin 'poizon' VasilevBenjamin 'blameF' Bremer Liquid #12 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJake 'Stewie2K' YipMichael 'Grim' Wince Spirit #14 Leonid 'chopper' VishnyakovNikolay 'mir' BityukovViktor 'sdy' OrudzhevAbdul 'degster' GasanovBoris 'magixx' Vorobiev Richard 'Xizt' Landström Age: 30 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 1665 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.65 Gambit #2 Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovTimofey 'interz' YakushinSergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovDmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovVladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov Adriano 'WOOD7' Cerato Age: 26 Team: MIBR Rating 1.0: 0.99 Maps played: 424 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.64 Lyngby Vikings #27 Dion 'FASHR' DerksenJakob 'Daffu' SchildtAdam 'WolfY' AnderssonThomas 'birdfromsky' Due-FrederiksenMarcus 'maNkz' Kjeldsen DBL PONEY #30 Alexandre 'bodyy' PianaroLucas 'Lucky' ChastangThomas 'Djoko' PavoniPierre 'Ex3rcice' BulingeAurélien 'afro' Drapier Matheus 'Tuurtle' Anhaia Age: 22 Team: MIBR Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 592 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.68 TYLOO #97 YuLun 'Summer' CaiYuanZhang 'Attacker' ShengHaoWen 'somebody' XuKelun 'SLOWLY' SunZhenghao 'DANK1NG' Lv Breno 'brnz4n' Poletto Age: 18 Team: MIBR Academy Rating 1.0: 0.78 Maps played: 12 KPR: 0.54 DPR: 0.74