Seventy-one teams participated in the second qualifier of ESL One: Cologne 2019. All the matches on the first day were best of one matchup and four undefeated teams have advanced to the semi-finale — Absolute, Recca Esports, EHOME, IPET Gaming. Amongst the four teams, two will advance to the Asian Closed Qualifier which will be held in later in May. Alpha Red and BTRQ have already secured their slot in the closed qualifier through the first open qualifier.
Semi-Finale matchups for Open Qualifier #2 will be held today:
15:30 (GST +5:30) – Recca Esports vs Absolute
18:30 (GST +5:30) – EHOME vs IPET Gaming
Indian powerhouses have once again disappointed us. Hovering around with constant roster shuffles and jumping teams after teams have led to minimal stability and functioning amongst the best.
Global Esports lost to Revolution 16-4 on Inferno in their initial match. Entity Gaming did not participate in the qualifiers due to reasons not known. After a month long bootcamp, Entity CS:GO squad landed in India yesterday which could possibly be a reason behind their absence. God Particles with little to no hopes lost to EHOME in the round 3 while Signify ended their stint against IPET Gaming 16-11 in the fourth round of second qualifier.
Team NXL were overwhelmed by Daimaru Gaming in their opening matchup. NASR were almost close to advancing to semi-finale but Recca eventually came out on top as they took Mirage 25-23 over NASR. FrostFire also went down in round three along with GodParticles and Made In Thailand. Portal Esport, Pakistan powerhouse also went down in the round four in a one sided affair against Alter Ego.