The group stage of Americas Ascension has concluded, narrowing the playing field to four teams to vie for one open VCT Americas spot.

Nine teams qualified to the event, with eight teams moving on to the Swiss stage after RED Canids were eliminated in the round robin play-in. The Swiss stage was structured in the same way as the Swiss stages at Masters Madrid and Masters Bangkok; teams with the same win-loss record were pitted against one another, with two wins leading to playoffs and two losses leading to elimination.

The following teams were eliminated before playoffs:

Below are the four teams remaining in the tournament, who will face off in a standard double-elimination bracket for the right to ascend.

2-0 Teams

1. TSM TSM North America Rank #3 Timotino Timothée Lavigne Dupont stand-in alvinboy Alvin Hong stand-in seven Johann Hernandez gMd Anthony Guimond vora Jordan Pulwer (North America #1)

The Challengers North America Stage 3 winners kicked off their Ascension campaign with a victory over Stellae Gaming. Although the series went to three maps, the round scores were dominant for TSM, who won the first map of Haven 13-3 and the third map of Lotus 13-2 with a 14-12 overtime loss in between.

Their second match saw them confront familiar opponents ENVY in a rematch of the Stage 3 grand finals. TSM started out on the back foot after ENVY managed an 11-3 comeback on the first map, but they quickly recovered with a strong 13-5, 13-8 showing to close out the series and punch their tickets to playoffs as one of the favorites to win the event.

vora pulls off a 1v3 to secure Sunset for TSM.

While three of TSM's players rank in the top four in the event thus far by rating, Timotino in particular has put up outsized numbers on the Duelist role, ranking first in ACS with 299 and ADR with 187. In several other categories, he trails just behind Team Solid's dgzin with a 1.39 rating, 1.05 KPR, and a 1.58 K:D as both players currently lead the event by a wide margin.

2. Team Solid Team Solid Brazil Rank #2 raafa Rafael Lima havoc Ilan Eloy PxS Josh Brunelli kon4n Vitor Hugo dgzin Douglas Silva (Brazil #2)

Team Solid entered Ascension as Brazil's #2 seed after winning the Challengers Brazil Last Chance Qualifier in September. Their first match was a close call against ShindeN that went the distance after a relatively one-sided map for each side, with dgzin making the difference in a 13-11 Ascent decider with a 29/14/1 KDA performance.

Their second match against Winthrop was a smooth 13-5, 13-10 win to qualify for the playoffs as the only team not from North America to do so. The first map of Corrode was another stunner from dgzin, who ended the map 27/10 with an unbelievable 12 first kills in 18 rounds. The Brazilian Duelist currently leads the event in close contention with Timotino with a 1.44 rating, 297 ACS, and 1.07 KPR.

dgzin denies all five Winthrop members access to the site.

2-1 Teams

1. ENVY ENVY North America Rank #4 canezerra Alex Banyasz Eggsterr Inspire Hunter Schline P0PPIN Matteo Weber ion2x Ayan Rastogi (North America #2)

Following a 13-3, 13-11 win over 9z Team and their subsequent loss to TSM, ENVY found themselves in 1-1 match against Stellae Gaming with their tournament lives on the line. Starting on Abyss, Stellae came out on top in a fierce 19-17 overtime clash after a 1v4 from guuih kept Stellae alive in round 34.

While the first map was on a knife's edge, the rest of the series couldn't have been more one-sided. Stellae would only win three rounds for the rest of the series as ENVY distinguished themselves with a 13-3 on Sunset and a 13-0 on Bind. P0PPIN on Bind had the best single-map performance of any player in the Swiss stage by multiple metrics with a 2.50 rating, 20/5/7 KDA, 443 ACS, and 290 ADR.

canezerra runs down Stellae in a commanding showing on Sunset.

After his performance against Stellae, P0PPIN leads his team by rating in the event with a 1.19, putting him at fifth overall. Eggsterr follows close behind on his signature Yoru with a 1.16 rating and ranks third in terms of KPR with 0.89 KPR.

2. Winthrop University Winthrop University North America Rank #10 moobs Gabriel Powell Governor Peter No infiltrator Philip Nguyen GLYPH Conner Garcia Ali (North America #3)

The last team to make the playoffs was Winthrop, continuing their run into the top four as the only collegiate team in Ascension. After going through the play-in, Winthrop's Swiss stage started with a play-in rematch against Six Karma, which they won 18-16, 13-9, and their later loss to Team Solid.

Their 1-1 match set them up against 9z Team, who included familiar names from the Latin American scene like Klaus , NagZ , and Tacolilla . After opening Abyss with a 1v3 in the pistol round from GLYPH , Winthrop stormed ahead to another 13-0 map win, securing a second 13-0 for North America in one day along with ENVY's over Stellae. They then rode the momentum to a 13-9 win in the second map, eliminating 9z and securing their playoff spot as the third North American team to do so.

GLYPH wins out a 1v3 to set the 13-0 in motion.

Playoffs

The playoffs begin today, Oct. 23, with a 2-0 team facing a 2-1 team on either side of the bracket in the upper semifinals. All four teams stand just three wins away from VCT. The schedule for the remainder Americas Ascension is as follows: