Cloud9 Cloud9 North America Rank #8 Xeppaa Erick Bach runi Dylan Cade moose Kaleb Jayne vanity Anthony Malaspina OXY Francis Hoang beat Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #2 TenZ Tyson Ngo Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid Sacy Gustavo Rossi 2-1 in the upper semifinals of the Americas Last Chance Qualifier. Unlike previous days, the tournament has already reached the double-elimination stage and Sentinels will have a second chance in the lower bracket.

Cloud9's win is a reflection of their regular season form, where the team carried themselves to a fourth-place finish in the VCT Americas League, just shy of a Tokyo spot. The team are held as one of the top contenders for the region's LCQ slot, boasting nearly 40% of the Pick ‘Ems.

“Everyone on this team really wants to win. That's what we wanted to build here at C9,” Zellsis said post-match.

Despite Sentinels' renewed form and pANcada and zekken 's best efforts, Cloud9 kept them at bay in the upper semifinals. C9 crawled to a 12-8 match point, where Xeppaa took down four for the win.

Cloud9 looked poised to take a quick win after a 6-1 start on Pearl — a map Sentinels picked despite a loss against 100 Thieves yesterday — but were soon faced with a challenge. mCe 's men only took the map 13-8. Sentinels trampled Cloud9 on the latter's Fracture pick 13-5, forcing the Split decider.

Cloud9 were the stronger side on Split, punching through several wild plays from Sentinels for an 8-4 halftime lead. On defense, they tussled with Sentinels once more, but ultimately came out on top with another 13-8.

zekken was the top dog once more for Sentinels. After dropping 62 kills against 100 Thieves, Sentinels' main duelist accrued 53 kills even in the face of defeat, the most of anyone in the match.

He stood out the most in the maps his team lost. On Pearl, his Jett found 22 kills (four first bloods) and a 1.27 rating, second only to Xeppaa . On Split, he put up similar numbers: 20 kills, a 1.26 rating. He compensated for a smaller volume of entry frags with his 10 assists. On Fracture, the map Sentinels won, Marved stood out with his seven first bloods, alongside Sacy 's 20 kills and 12 assists for a match-high 1.50 rating.

Sentinels placed themselves in a dangerous position from the get-go, as the team dropped its map pick and would then have to traverse two of Cloud's best maps this year. Coach kaplan seemed unfazed by both losses on Pearl; the entire team agrees the issues are fixable and they felt safe at all times.

“It's a comp and a map we've been really confident in. We've been preparing [it] for two months. We want to stick to where we feel like the work has looked the best,” he said. “The score doesn't reflect it, but we played a lot better today. Yesterday we were pretty overheated, we didn't sound like ourselves, we weren't playing our game. I think we played our game a lot better today.”

Zellsis blamed most of the Fracture loss on momentum. The team got off to a weak start and “played into their traps, played into their comp,” and ultimately handed the map over to Sentinels. He also recognized his team's lack of form in the playoffs and how important this second chance can be for the squad.

“Obviously we didn't make Tokyo. We butchered the playoffs and we really regret that a lot. We're just coming here even hungrier than before,” he stated. “We showed it today, played against a good Sentinels team. They had a lot of practice, they looked good against 100 Thieves, so it just shows.”

If Cloud9 want to fully grasp that second chance and show their new form, they still have to win at least two matches. Cloud9 are now in the upper final, where they will play KRÜ Esports KRÜ Esports Latin America South Rank #3 keznit Angelo Mori Klaus Nicolas Ferrari Shyy Fabian Usnayo Melser Marco Eliot Machuca Amaro heat Olavo Marcelo or Leviatán Leviatán Latin America South Rank #1 tex Ian Botsch kiNgg Francisco Aravena Mazino Roberto Rivas aspas Erick Santos C0M Corbin Lee , and will have to secure a win in the Bo5 grand final if the boys in blue are to return to Champions after missing out last year.

Sentinels will have to go back to the form they showed against 100T and win at least three matches if they want to return to Champions. Their first match in the lower bracket will be against whichever LATAM team loses in the other upper semifinal.