Ace Gaming defeated Synthetik Gaming 2-0 on Sunday to win Northern Arena’s Call of the North Counter-Strike: Global Offensive online qualifier and become the first team to clinch a spot at the Toronto LAN Finals at Fan Expo in September.

As the runner up, Synthetik will also join Ace in Toronto.

The undefeated Ace took control early on the first map, winning six of the first seven rounds on Mirage, but the gap would close to 9-6 at halftime as Synthetik took five of the final eight rounds.

Stephan “vEz” Vezina was red-hot out of the gate for Ace with 16 kills in the first 13 rounds.

Ace’s advantage continued in the second half as the unbeaten club won eight straights rounds to take the opening map 16-6. vEz finished a stellar first map with 26 kills to just seven deaths and his squad scored a +75 differential over their opponents. 

The second map, Cobblestone, started on a much different note as Synthetik jumped out to a 2-0, and later, 6-3 lead. Ace maintained their composure, took a step back, and turned the enemies aggression on them.

Synthetik began to fall into multiple traps, lost the majority of the exchanges in the latter part of the first half, and found themselves trailing 9-6 heading into the break. 

Ace’s momentum continued in the second half to the tune of four straight round wins. Synthetik responded with two of their own, but it wasn’t enough to swing the momentum back in their favour.

Led by Yassine “Subroza” Taoufix and Keven “PL1” Champagne - 22 kills apiece - Ace won the three rounds they needed to take the map 16-11 and book their ticket to Toronto from September 1-4.

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Lower Bracket Finals

Synthetik got a shot to exact revenge on Ace after doubling up on CLG 16-8 on Cache in a single-elimination match to move into championship final.

Patrick “theguy” Dupont led the charge for Synthetik with 15 kills in a 12-3 first-half advantage, followed closely by Kevin “wAKKa” Cataphard with 14 and Maxime “dav0ke” Beauchamp with 13. The three would finish with 22, 20 and 19 kills, respectively.

All five of CLG’s players suffered double-digit deaths in the first half and finished with a minus-24 team differential.

The second half needed nine rounds before Synthetik clinched a berth in the final.

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Round 3 Lower Bracket

CLG Red staved off elimination for the third time at Northern Arena's Call of the North Counter-Strike: Global Offensive online qualifiers presented by Bell and will face Synthetik Gaming for a spot in the championship.

The all-female squad rallied from a seven-round deficit to defeat Insomnia eSports 19-17 in overtime on Cache in the third round of the lower bracket.

Insomnia stormed out to a 11-4 halftime lead on the back 15 kills from both Justin “jaystn” Chau and Alex “AGN” Niculae. Four of Insomnia’s five players had positive differentials through the first fifteen rounds.

CLG scratched and clawed with desperation in the second half, flipping the scoreline and winning eight straight rounds to send it into the extra session. CLG won four of six rounds in overtime to close out the match.

The winner of CLG and Synthetik will move on to face Ace Gaming in the championship for a spot in the Toronto LAN Finals at Fan Expo from September 1-4.

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