The Americas Stage 1 playoffs are underway, with MIBR MIBR Brazil Rank #1 artzin Arthur Araujo xenom Eduardo Soeiro cortezia Gabriel Cortez Verno Andrew Maust aspas Erick Santos and Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #2 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid finding 2-0 victories over 100 Thieves 100 Thieves North America Rank #5 zander Alexander Dituri Cryocells Matthew Panganiban eeiu Daniel Vucenovic Boostio Kelden Pupello Asuna Peter Mazuryk and Cloud9 Cloud9 North America Rank #11 Xeppaa Erick Bach v1c Victor Truong mitch Mitch Semago neT Michael Bernet OXY Francis Hoang respectively.

MIBR breezes past 100 Thieves

The first match of playoffs featured a Kickoff rematch between 100 Thieves and the last hope of Brazil. The first time around, it was the thieves who took a comfortable win, but MIBR flipped the script this time. With their new addition of Verno and much more experience under their belt, MIBR have emerged as the better team.

Both maps started with the pistol and bonus rounds both going MIBR's way, putting 100 Thieves on the back foot early on. On Split, the thieves were able to make it close, almost making the comeback in the second half, but MIBR's dynamic duo of cortezia and Verno proved too much for them.

Icebox, on the other hand, was much less competitive. Once MIBR had the momentum, they ran with it all the way to a 13-4 stomp. aspas , who had been particularly quiet on Split, came alive on Icebox, putting the Operator to work on the defense side to the tune of a 1.80 rating on the map.

MIBR will go on to face KRÜ Esports KRÜ Esports Latin America South Rank #1 keznit Angelo Mori Mazino Roberto Rivas adverso Benjamín Poblete Shyy Fabian Usnayo Melser Marco Eliot Machuca Amaro for tickets to Masters Toronto, while 100 Thieves falls down to the lower bracket to face NRG Esports NRG Esports North America Rank #8 FiNESSE Pujan Mehta s0m Sam Oh brawk Brock Somerhalder mada Adam Pampuch Ethan Ethan Arnold in another Kickoff rematch.

Sentinels endures Cloud9's comebacks

The second match of the day pitted two evenly matched North American teams against each other. With both coming off strong group stage performances, a close match was promised.

Ascent started out with a hectic back and forth of thrifty rounds before Sentinels stabilized and pushed their lead forward. Spearheaded by insane plays from zekken , Sentinels quickly built up to a 9-3 half. Winning the second half pistol, they pushed it even further to 12-3, all but securing the map win. However, Cloud9 started to make them sweat, with mitch leading a six round win streak. That was as far as they would get, as Sentinels finally closed the map out 13-9.

Pearl told a similar story to Ascent, with Sentinels once again up 9-3 at the half. This time, it was bang pulling out the big plays, including a 1v3 ace clutch. Once the second half came around, though, Cloud9 again fought back. Six consecutive rounds tied the map up at 9-9, but living up to their name, nine was all Cloud9 could muster before falling prey to Sentinels.

Sentinels have earned themselves a date with G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #1 jawgemo Alexander Mor trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio JonahP Jonah Pulice leaf Nathan Orf in the next round, where the two Bangkok representatives will duke it out for a spot in Toronto. Cloud9 will drop down to face Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses North America Rank #9 Derrek Derrek Ha NaturE Nicholas Garrison supamen Phat Le icy Jacob Lange yay Jaccob Whiteaker in an elimination match.

Playoffs will continue tomorrow with the aforementioned lower bracket matchups:

• 100 Thieves vs. NRG Esports
• Cloud9 vs. Evil Geniuses