The good, bad, and ugly of FLASHPOINT Global Qualifier

FLASHPOINT's first official LAN qualifier has passed us by and left us with some exciting results. Eight teams came into the FLASHPOINT Global Qualifier to fight over two spots in FLASHPOINT Season 1. One team that made it was expected, while the other wasn't.

The good

BIG

BIG was definitely a favorite coming into the FLASHPOINT Global Qualifier. The German squad won DreamHack Open Leipzig 2020 at the beginning of the year, and overall have a lot more reputation and experience behind them as players when compared to other teams. BIG didn't come out of the gate as hot as I had hoped, though. They lost their first series to DETONA. Granted, it was a best-of-one, but it still wasn't really a match for BIG to be losing. BIG did manage to recover and regain and secure their spot in FLASHPOINT Season 1, which is all fans can ask for.

Florian "syrsoN" Rische showed up for BIG at the FLASHPOINT Global Qualifier with a 1.27 HLTV rating and a 0.81 KPR.

Orgless

Orgless were the team I mentioned before that weren't really a favorite coming into the Global Qualifier. Sure, they had a lot of talent on their squad, but people weren't entirely convinced that they could come together and qualify. Well, they proved the doubters wrong because they did just that. Their path to Season 1 wasn't an easy one either. They had to take down AVEZ, DETONA, and Chaos EC to get there. It will be interesting to see if they are picked up by an organization soon.

Gage "Infinite" Green came out swinging for Orgless and kept his performance going through the tournament. He finished the FLASHPOINT Global Qualifier with a 1.32 HLTV rating and a 0.89 KPR.

HAVU

HAVU found themselves in the Global Qualifier after the original qualified team, SKADE, had visa issues and were unable to attend. Regardless, HAVU came into the event and had a pretty good showing. Their only loss was to BIG in the match that decided who qualified for Season 1. While that's not the result HAVU wanted, they did manage to make it competitive and take down teams that were supposed to be better than them.

The bad

Chaos EC

Chaos EC came up a little short at the Global Qualifier against Orgless. The only reason I have Chaos as bad while not having HAVU there is due to their path to qualification versus HAVU's. Chaos had a bit of an easier path but still came up short in the end. This is a squad chock-full of talent and one that saw bootcamps and an in-house training structure. Chaos losing to a team in the qualification match that lacked all of that is a bit disappointing. While I'm sure Inifinite being on Chaos previously played a small part in their defeat, I don't think it's enough to lay all the blame on it.

DETONA

DETONA managed to do something that I'm pretty sure no one ever could have imagined they would in beating BIG in the opening series of the FLASHPOINT Global Qualifier. DETONA did come in 5-6th at an eight-team event, which isn't good, but I think they may have had the hardest path to qualify out of any of the other teams. They faced BIG in the opener, then Orgless, then BIG again. That's pretty rough, seeing as they only played the two teams that made it into Season 1.

The ugly

Copenhagen Flames

Copenhagen Flames was the second highest-rated team at the Global Qualifier, but it doesn't show in their results. Their only win was against Redemption POA, who didn't even win a map. I would discount this a bit if they had played against the best teams at the event, but they didn't. They played against teams that they should have, on paper, taken down. A 5-6th exit for Copenhagen Flames is pretty bad given the talent this roster bolsters.

Redemption POA

Redemption POA was not a favored team coming into this event, and they lived up to that. Their highest round count out of three maps was 11 against Chaos. The others were seven and five. Noone performed well on Redemption POA, and that's not a good thing.

AVEZ

AVEZ is much like DETONA on this list due to them having a pretty hard path to qualification. They played against BIG and Orgless and lost both series. I sympathize with them, but failing to win even one map can never be viewed as anything but ugly. AVEZ were favored initially against Orgless, but this may have been a bit skewed due to Orgless's recent formation and lack of officials to give an accurate comparison. AVEZ also beat BIG earlier this year in the DreamHack Open Anaheim 2020 Europe Open Qualifier, but couldn't replicate that on LAN. Either way, AVEZ will be very disappointed with their finish.