HOTU were one series away from a sure Singapore Major place and now need Sunday night’s results in Buenos Aires to go their way.
1win won GLuck Moscow Cyber Games on Sunday with a 2-0 win over HOTU in the grand final, 13-9 on Anubis and 13-11 on Dust2. The title takes 1win to Stage 2 of the PGL Major Singapore, and it leaves HOTU without the invite a win would have guaranteed them.
As we wrote this morning, the Moscow final and FiReSPORTS Last Chance in Buenos Aires were the last two events that could move Europe’s final places before Valve’s VRS snapshot on 2 November. Moscow is settled. The last European invite now goes through Argentina, where 100 Thieves control their own fate and HOTU and Fnatic can only hope.
HOTU’s Anubis pick goes to 1win
1win2-0
HOTUAnubis 13-9, Dust2 13-11HOTU picked Anubis and held 6-6 at the half, but 1win took seven of the last ten rounds to close it out 13-9. Artem “ArtFr0st” Kharitonov, on loan from BetBoom, went 18-8 on the map. Dmitry “mizu” Kondratev did what he could on the other side with 21-13, 76.8 ADR and 90.9% KAST, the only HOTU player with more kills than deaths.
On 1win’s Dust2 pick, HOTU trailed 4-8 at the break and fought back to 11-11. The comeback stopped there: 1win won round 23 on a B execute and then the map, 13-11.
The lineup of Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov, Vladislav “nafany” Gorshkov, Andrey “BELCHONOKK” Yasinskiy, Petr “fame” Bolyshev and ArtFr0st only came together in August, and they are already 14th in HLTV’s world ranking.
Why HOTU are not quite out
Valve’s Major rules hand out all 32 places from the regional VRS lists, and Europe’s 18th and last invite is still open. HOTU’s runner-up finish was not enough to secure it, and HLTV’s simulator now has them only third favourite for the place, behind 100 Thieves. Before the final, HLTV’s live tracker had HOTU at 58%.
Eternal Fire are no longer part of the sum. HLTV counts them as qualified after their Stake Ranked title on Friday, which leaves three teams for one place:
| If this happens in the grand final | Likely winner of Europe’s last place |
|---|---|
 100 Thieves win | 100 Thieves |
 Wildcard win |  Fnatic (78.6%) |
VRS gives teams credit for the opponents they have beaten, and that credit is recalculated as those opponents win. Earlier on Sunday, HLTV pointed to HOTU as the team a Wildcard title would help most, as HOTU beat Wildcard earlier this year. With Wildcard through to the final, HLTV’s VRS calculator now makes Fnatic the favourite at 78.6% if Wildcard lift the trophy, with HOTU at 22.6%.
100 Thieves are one series away
100 Thieves did their part in the first semi-final on Sunday afternoon. They beat BESTIA 2-0, 13-10 on BESTIA’s Mirage pick and 13-8 on their own Dust2, where they won seven of the last nine rounds from 6-6 at the half.
100 Thieves2-0
BESTIAMirage 13-10, Dust2 13-8That leaves one more series. Win the grand final at against Wildcard, who beat BARCA 2-0 in the other semi-final, and Europe’s last invite is theirs. Lose it, and the place most likely goes to Fnatic. All matches in Buenos Aires are Bo3, and the winner takes $40,000 of the $75,000 prize pool.
| Match | Time |
|---|---|
| Wildcard vs BARCA, semi-final | |
| BESTIA vs BARCA, third place | |
| 100 Thieves vs Wildcard, grand final |
For Wildcard there is more at stake than HOTU’s luck. HLTV gave them a 95% chance of the ninth and final Americas invite after they beat NRG on Saturday, The one scenario HLTV saw taking it from them needed a BESTIA title, and BESTIA are now out.
The grand final should end late on Sunday night European time. Valve then publish the standings that decide every invitation to Singapore, where the Major starts on 24 November.
