Cloud9 Cloud9 North America Rank #7 Xeppaa Erick Bach v1c Victor Truong mitch Mitch Semago moose Kaleb Jayne OXY Francis Hoang and KRÜ Esports KRÜ Esports Latin America South Rank #3 keznit Angelo Mori Mazino Roberto Rivas adverso Benjamín Poblete mta Nicolás González Shyy Fabian Usnayo Melser Marco Eliot Machuca Amaro lost to MIBR MIBR Brazil Rank #19 artzin Arthur Araujo xenom Eduardo Soeiro cortezia Gabriel Cortez nzr Agustin Ibarra aspas Erick Santos and G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #3 jawgemo Alexander Mor trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio JonahP Jonah Pulice leaf Nathan Orf in their respective decisive deciders, while Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #2 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid took down LEVIATÁN LEVIATÁN Latin America South Rank #1 Demon1 Max Mazanov tex Ian Botsch kiNgg Francisco Aravena C0M Corbin Lee nataNk Nathan Bocqueho in Group B to complete the play-ins stage matchups. Cloud9, Leviatán, and KRÜ are eliminated from Americas Kickoff and Masters Madrid qualification.

MIBR eliminate Cloud9, advance to play-ins

The series was a rematch of both teams' opener in Group A, where Cloud9 squeezed out a close 2-1 victory over MIBR. The series would begin on Bind, just as it had in the team's first matchup. The first go around on Bind saw Cloud9 win in the last round of regulation.

MIBR would opt to switch up their composition from the previous game, switching up a couple roles and bringing in a KAY/O for a Jett. After Cloud9 opened with four straight on defense, MIBR reversed the momentum entirely. The Brazilians pieced together seven straight rounds buoyed by constant opening picks before recycling the previous Bind halftime score of 7-5.

That momentum would continue to start the second half, as MIBR jumped out to a 10-5 lead enabled by a Cloud9 force buy loss. The North American squad then used both OXY 's Yoru teleports and the map teleporters themselves to maneuver masterfully across the map, throwing out constant fakes and rotations to leave the MIBR defense without a clue.

The back-and-forth affair would eventually be decided in overtime, where OXY would be left in two different 1v2 clutch situations after failed pushes by Cloud9. The rookie duelist would be shut down in both attempts, putting MIBR just one map from the play-ins stage.

Despite a hot start from Xeppaa on defense, MIBR's attack side on their map pick proved strong off the back of their own starlike performances from RgLMeister and jzz . MIBR opened with another streak of four rounds on their defense, which was too much for Cloud9 to overcome as MIBR moved on to the play-ins. An off-meta comp for MIBR seemed to cause a few problems for Cloud9.

MIBR moves into the play-ins stage, awaiting the second-place teams from the other groups on Monday for a chance to make the playoffs stage. Cloud9 has been eliminated from Americas Kickoff after losses to NRG Esports NRG Esports North America Rank #4 FiNESSE Pujan Mehta s0m Sam Oh Verno Andrew Maust mada Adam Pampuch Ethan Ethan Arnold and MIBR.

“Our comps on the first matchup didn't work very much,” rglmeister said post-match. “A lot of the credit goes to mazin for the win; his calls were working very well for us.”

Sentinels move to play-ins, eliminate Leviatán

The second match of the day saw a hyped matchup between fan favorite Sentinels and potential Americas superteam Leviatán for a spot at the play ins stage with MIBR. Sentinels defeated Leviatán across three maps to secure their spot in the Americas Kickoff play-ins stage. Leviatán lost two straight against LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #2 dgzin Douglas Silva v1nny Vínicius Gonçalves pANcada Bryan Luna tuyz Arthur Andrade cauanzin Cauan Pereira and Sentinels after winning their opening match versus 100 Thieves 100 Thieves North America Rank #6 zander Alexander Dituri Cryocells Matthew Panganiban eeiu Daniel Vucenovic Boostio Kelden Pupello Asuna Peter Mazuryk in a tough group. Sentinels did the opposite, winning two straight to keep their Masters Madrid hopes alive.

Sentinels opted to start the match on Split, a map that Leviatán had looked shaky on against LOUD. The choice proved a great decision for sentinels, as they opened with a 9-3 lead despite the double duelist comp from Leviatán. Sentinels put together retake after retake on the defense side, complimented by impressive individual plays.

The final score was 13-3 on Split, with just kiNgg and aspas the only players on Leviatán with more than seven kills. zekken was the star for Sentinels, producing 228 ADR to spearhead the dominant victory. The rest of the squad was not far behind, contributing four clutches and two 4K's.

Breeze was a different story as Leviatán flipped the script of the first map, jumping out to a 9-3 lead on their own map pick. kiNgg and aspas again lead the way to keep their team's Madrid aspirations alive. The pace and confidence that Leviatán played with on the attack gave Sentinels fits, and the known starpower of the players shone through.

Sentinels responded a bit better than their counterparts did when faced with a large deficit, but not by much. Leviatán would close out Breeze comfortably with a 13-6 scoreline. aspas looked right at home, putting out 188 ADR to lead the lobby.

The series would be decided on Bind, a map that Leviatán was already 2-0 on in Kickoff, and that Sentinels had lost their only matchup on against 100 Thieves 13-6. Leviatán began with a 4-0 lead after a bonus round win on defense, but Sentinels by ramping up the speed of their hits on their double duelist composition. That speed overwhelmed the anchors for Leviatán

Sacy in particular traded his teammates out extremely well and came close to some insane clutches on the way to lead his team with 12 kills at a 6-6 half. An absurdly close pistol combined with a bonus round win of their own catapulted Sentinels to a 10-6 lead on defense.

A 4K from aspas stopped the Sentinels streak and breathed a bit of life into the Leviatán attack. The play, plus subsequent 3Ks from C0M and kiNgg, put Leviatán back into the game at 10-9. A Sentinels timeout and well-coordinated setup put themselves back in the driver's seat on the way to a 13-9 victory and a series win.

zekken came alive at the end of Bind and put together a star performance across the series with 65 kills. Sacy had massive impact throughout the entire series. kiNgg and aspas were the leaders for Leviatán once again, but an overall -13 first kill differential proved to be too much to overcome. The potential is there for this Leviatán roster, but the calling and teamwork seem to be out of sync at the moment.

“It was definitely a weight off our shoulders,” zekken said on making it out of Group B post-match. “We played all three teams and had some difficult matches and made it out, so just happy that we could do that.”

G2 defeat KRÜ in Group C rematch

The third and final match of the day saw another rematch, this time in the Group C decider. G2 and KRÜ battled to join MIBR and Sentinels in the plays-ins stage. The first matchup between the teams was an extremely close three-map series, where G2 won in the final map by just two rounds.

G2 started hot, opening KRÜ's map pick with a 7-2 lead as KRÜ struggled to find space to work with against the oppressive G2 combined utility. leaf bringing out the Operator threw another wrench into the attack plans of KRÜ. A Shyy 1v2 helped KRÜ bring the half back to a 7-5 scoreline.

A KRÜ pistol win pushed the score to 7-7, but the comeback wasn't to be completed as G2 rocketed back out to a 13-8 victory. neT was a major component of the win for G2 as he dropped 20 kills on Cypher.

KRÜ had much better success on G2's map pick of Sunset, the only repeat matchup between the two teams. The Chilean roster jumped out to a 7-5 lead behind an impressive 18 kills from keznit on Chamber.

G2 turned up their play to another level on their attack side, dropping just one round to secure their spot at the play-ins stage. valyn 's calling was giving KRÜ fits on rotations and defensive setups.

The entire G2 team finished with a positive K/D differential across the series, although neT lead the way with 37 kills. KRÜ did not have the same success across the board, although Shyy and keznit were bright spots for the team in their two matches.

“We watched the first map with KRÜ back and we thought we honestly shouldn't have won that game,” JonahP said post match. “We worked on fixing things and it was a 2-0 today as it should have been.”

(Banner image by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)