FaZe Clan, Fnatic in the race at the IEM Fall 2021 European Closed Qualifier

The Closed Qualifier portion of the marquee competition will see sixteen teams, who earned their place at the event through a series of Open qualifiers, now compete for twelve open spots at the regional main event in a double-elimination playoffs bracket.

Earlier in August, ESL had declared the forthcoming IEM Fall 2021: Europe as the last and final RMR (Regional Major Ranking) event for the said region. It would further help the teams to gain points towards the PGL Stockholm Major, to be held later this year. A total of six events were declared by the event organizer ahead of the Major including, to be played across the North and South America, CIS, Asia and the Oceanic regions.

The European region were assigned four open qualifier events while the rest teams were invited to the Closed qualifier. Below is the list of the teams who made it through the four Open Qualifiers.

Fnatic, FaZe Clan, Sinners, SKADE, ENCE, Dignitas, Anonymo, Eternal Fire received a direct invite to the closed qualifier and will engage tonight in a double-elimination bracket in a bid to qualify for the Main RMR Event.

Team breakdown ft Fnatic, Eternal Fire.

1. Fnatic :

Freddy “⁠KRIMZ⁠” Johansson
Jack “⁠Jackinho⁠” Ström Mattsson
Ludvig “⁠Brollan⁠” Brolin
Alex “⁠ALEX⁠” McMeekin
William “⁠mezii⁠” Merriman

Andreas “⁠Samuelsson⁠” Samuelsson (Head coach)

After a series of lacklustre showings across top tier events, Fnatic decided to restructure their CS:GO division in a bid to climb back to the top. The once all-Swedish side recently switched to an international roster featuring Alex “ALEX” McMeekin, Willian “mezii” Merriman and Jamie “Keita” Hall with the latter joining as a strategic coach.

Mezii is no stranger to ALEX as he recently had played alongside him at Cloud9 and might be able to reform the synergy with the British tactician and the rest of the players. Fnatic had showcased a decent showing at the recently concluded ESL Pro League S14, finishing their Group with 3-2 only to be sent packing by Team Liquid in the Quarter Final.

2. Eternal Fire :

• İsmailсan “XANTARES” Dörtkardeş
• Özgür “woxic” Eker
• Buğra “Calyx” Arkın
• Ömer “imoRR” Karataş
• Issa “ISSAA” Murad

• Timur “bishop” Şengül

The ex-HellRaisers duo of Issa ‘ISSAA’ Murad and Özgür ‘woxic’ Eker are back this time on Eternal Fire. Post the whole Cloud9 situation, Woxic must be looking to turn some heads as would ISSAA after his unfortunate tenure with OG as both players were forced to step down due to a network issue amid the Online Counter : Strike era.

IEM Fall 2021 : Europe Closed Qualifier is scheduled to start from 21:00 IST and the opening fixtures are as follows