Paul “Zalae” Nemeth and Jung-Soo “Surrender” Kim are the two winners of the SLTV International Qualifier, joining the main event in September.
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For the last five days, StarLadder and GosuGamers have been partnering to organize and carry out the two closed qualifiers for the $15,000 StarLadder season, coming on streams next month. The best players from CIS and around the world were invited to compete in two separate qualifiers, and the winners are now known.
Archon’s Zalae dominated the winners bracket of the international qualifier, not dropping a single series. The American went through Apostolos “Hawkeye” Karaiskos, Michael “Maverick” Looze, Jung-Soo “Surrender” Kim and Sebastian “Ostkaka” Engwall to be the first one from that qualifier to secure his place in the main event.
Two-times OGN grand finalist Surrender followed Zalae soon thereafter. The Korean had to fight through three rounds of the losers bracket, eliminated Dima “Rdu” Radu, Frederik “Hoej” Nielsen and finally Ostkaka, proving once again that he’s one of the rising stars to watch for this year.
Despite being stacked with names like Neirea, Tataby, NuttyBunny and NickChipper, Russia ended up dominating the CIS qualifier bracket. Alexander “Kucha” Kulinich came out from the upper bracket and was followed by Alexey “ShtanUdachi” Barsukov. Of the two, ShtanUdachi is arguably the more popular name, being the first player to reach 20,000 wins in Hearthstone, split evenly between Arena and Ranked play.
The list of invites and group seeding will be announced shortly before the tournament begins early September.
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