Ace Gaming was perfect on Saturday at Northern Arena's Call of the North Counter-Strike: Global Offensive online qualifier presented by Bell to move into the championship on Sunday. 

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Upper Bracket Finals

Ace stumbled out of the gate on Dust 2 and dropped the first two rounds but quickly recovered and stormed back with seven straight and 10 of the next 11 to grab a 10-5 lead at halftime.

The team moved across the map in groups, seldom leaving a player to wander alone. The strategy resulted in plenty of odd-man exchanges and a clear early advantage.

Ludovi "tiz" Emond led the charge for Ace with 15 kills, including three first kills and five head. He was tied with teammate Loic "effys" Sauvageu with a plus-seven differential through the first 15 rounds.

Tiz added another 13 kills in just nine second-half rounds as Ace capitalized on some costly mistakes from Synthetik to take the first map 16-8.

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It was a tale of two maps, at least at the beginning, on Cache. Synthetik flew out to a commanding 7-0 lead on the back of the three-headed monster of Maxime "dav0ke" Beauchamp, Patrick "theguy" Dupont and Mathieu "tam" Landry.

With the half seemingly in complete control, Synthetik took their foot off the gas and dropped seven straight before winning the final round of the half to hang onto an 8-7 lead.

Synthetik scored the first three rounds of the second half, but could only muster another two along the way as Ace completed the comeback to move into the championship on Sunday with a 16-13 win.

Synthetik drops into the lower bracket final set for Sunday and will face either CLG Red or Insomnia eSports in the Lower Bracket Finals.

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Round 2 Lower Bracket

CLG staved off elimination for the second time in the lower bracket on Saturday with a 16-13 win over Selfless Gaming on Cache and Insomnia eSports left no doubt about their quality in a 16-3 destruction of Earthroot Gaming on Cobblestone.

CLG and Insomnia will duel on Sunday for a chance to play Synthetik in the Lower Bracket Finals.

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Round 2 Upper Bracket

Synthetik and Ace were the last undefeated teams after wins over Insomnia and Selfless in the second round of the winner's bracket.

Synthetik booked its spot in the third round with consecutive wins against Insomnia on Cobblestone (16-11) and Mirage (19-16 OT), while Ace emerged from their second round matchup against Selfless with victories on Nuke (16-14) and Cache (16-10).

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Insomnia drops down to the lower bracket for a single-elimination matchup against Earthroot Gaming and Selfless will look to stay alive against CLG Red.

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Round 1 Lower Bracket

XFYR and Nonpareil were the first two teams eliminated on Saturday after dual 16-9 losses in the lower bracket to Earthroot and CLG.

CLG and XFYR traded blows for the first half of their single-game elimination match on Dust 2 before the tides turned in the second half. With an 8-7 lead, CLG won four straight rounds and eight of the final 10 to send XFYR packing.

In the other lower bracket matchup, Earthroot stormed out to a 5-0 lead on Mirage before losing eight of the next 10 to go into halftime trailing 7-8. The deficit meant little to the Quebec-based squad as they would steamroll their opponents with nine wins in 10 rounds to stay alive.

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CLG and Earthroot await the results of the upper bracket and face potential matchups against Synthetik Gaming, Insomnia eSports, Ace Gaming and Selfless Gaming.

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Round 1 Upper Bracket

Sweeps ruled the opening round as Synthetik was the first to advance with a dominating 2-0 series win over XFYR. The lineup made up of mostly Canadian players has been rolling this season with a 13-1 record in ESEA Open and lost just three matches in their opening-round win, defeating their Canadian opponents 16-1 on Mirage in the first round and 16-2 on Cobblestone to close out the series.

Only two members of XFYR, Max “MaD-Max” Rawal (11) and Matthew “Nebtam” Ben (10) earned double digits in kills and did so on separate maps, respectively.

All-Canadian squad Ace moved into the upper bracket with two consecutive map victories over Nonpareil. The more experienced roster was too much for their all-female opponents, winning 16-7 on Dust 2 to open the series and 16-1 on Mirage to advance.

Nonpareil had no answers for Ace in the first half of both matches, falling 13-2 in the first round and 15-0 in the second. Six of their eight round wins came in the second half.

Insomnia earned a shot at Synthetik in the winner’s bracket with a sweep of all-female squad CLG. 

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The predominantly Canadian roster jumped out to an early 5-0 lead on Mirage before clinging to an 8-7 halftime lead in the first round. Insomnia powered their way to seven straight wins to open the second half and captured a 1-0 series lead with a 16-8 win.

The train continued to roll in the second match on Cobblestone as Insomnia cruised to an 11-4 halftime lead and would drop just two games in the second half to secure the victory.

The only series to go to three maps was between Earthroot and Selfless.

Selfless took the opening map 16-10 on Overpass, winning nine of their rounds in a convincing second half. The all-female squad used another stellar second half (10-5) to send the second round on Mirage to overtime, but couldn't hold off the extra effort from Earthroot as the series was sent to a third and final map by a score of 19-16.

In the decisive round on Cache, Selfless held off multiple rallies from Earthroot to secure the series with a 16-10 win.

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