Vega Squadron have booked their spot in the EPICENTER Wildcard qualifier after defeating Na`Vi 2-1 in the CIS closed qualifier.

Following AVANGAR's decision to skip the remainder of the qualifier after qualifying for the CIS Minor, Vega Squadron took on Natus Vincere in a rematch of the Upper Bracket final, which Danylo "⁠Zeus⁠" Teslenko's men had won after two very close maps.

Na`Vi got off on the right foot in the series as they won Train after overturning a 9-6 half-time deficit with a near-flawless CT half. However, they would soon realise that they would not find qualification gift-wrapped.

On Nuke, Vega Squadron came out the livelier of the two sides and stormed to a 6-1 lead on the Terrorist side. That was when Na`Vi tightened up their defence and kept their opponents at bay, conceding just one more round before the end of the half, which ended with a surprisingly close 8-7 scoreline.

Vega Squadron will compete for a spot in EPICENTER's main tournament

After losing the first two rounds of the second half, Na`Vi went on a great run and took a 13-10 lead. Many believed that Zeus's men had all the tools required to close out the match, but Vega Squadron came back from the dead and locked down the map by winning six rounds straight.

It all came down to Mirage, which followed the same pattern as the second map as Natus Vincere took a narrow 8-7 lead after an extremely slow start to the game. Na`Vi further added to their lead by winning the first four rounds of the second half, but then they struggled to break through the Vega Squadron defence. With Dmitriy "⁠jR⁠" Chervak in stunning form on the A site, the Russian team won nine of the next ten rounds, locking down the map at 16-13.

EPICENTER 2017 CIS Closed QualifierBest of 3 Natus VincereMatchpage 1 2 12th October 2017 Vega Squadron 16Train 10 13Nuke 16 13Mirage 16

Natus Vincere	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Egor 'flamie' Vasilyevflamie	75 - 57	+18	98.0	1.33
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostylievs1mple	67 - 52	+15	84.8	1.22
Ioann 'Edward' SukharievEdward	56 - 55	+1	73.5	1.02
Denis 'seized' Kostinseized	53 - 61	-8	66.1	0.89
Danylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoZeus	43 - 59	-16	63.8	0.86

Vega Squadron	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Dmitriy 'jR' ChervakjR	65 - 52	+13	79.3	1.19
Pavel 'hutji' Lashkovhutji	69 - 57	+12	80.9	1.14
Nikolay 'mir' Bityukovmir	51 - 54	-3	71.7	0.98
Sergey 'keshandr' Nikishinkeshandr	54 - 67	-13	78.4	0.95
Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakovchopper	45 - 64	-19	70.3	0.85

Vega Squadron will now join three other teams in the wildcard qualifier for EPICENTER, taking place on October 23 at the same venue as the main event. The following teams will fight for two spots in the $500,000 competition:

FaZe	Liquid
TYLOO	Vega Squadron

We start bootcamp very soon and we'll work our ass off to fix the mistakes and start playing better

Sorry for bad performances guys 😓

— Daniil Teslenko (@ZeusCS_GO) October 12, 2017

Dmitriy 'jR' Chervak Age: 23 Team: Vega Squadron Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 289 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.65 AVANGAR #30 Timur 'buster' TulepovAidyn 'KrizzeN' TurlybekovAlexey 'Qikert' GolubevDzhami 'Jame' AliDmitry 'dimasick' Matvienko Danylo 'Zeus' Teslenko Age: 30 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 0.95 Maps played: 1014 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.69 FaZe #4 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenOlof 'olofmeister' KajbjerLadislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsNikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' Nygaard Natus Vincere #10 Ioann 'Edward' SukharievDanylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoDenis 'seized' KostinEgor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev TYLOO #93 Vladyslav 'bondik' NechyporchukKe 'captainMo' LiuHui 'DD' WuHansel 'BnTeT' FerdinandHaoWen 'somebody' Xu Vega Squadron #29 Leonid 'chopper' VishnyakovDmitriy 'jR' ChervakSergey 'keshandr' NikishinNikolay 'mir' BityukovPavel 'hutji' Lashkov Liquid #6 Nick 'nitr0' CannellaJosh 'jdm64' MarzanoPeter 'stanislaw' JarguzJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiRussel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken