Ones to watch

If anything qualifies as a rite of passage in CS:GO, it would be going through the gruesome gauntlet of a weekend full of open qualifier games, just to lose at the end.

What doesn't kill you or give you an ulcer, makes you stronger, as they say.

The open qualifiers is also where a lot of talent is first discovered. Diamonds are created under pressure, and the constant do-or-die situation means that the pressure is unrelenting.

This weekend, we had several qualifiers going on: IEM Fall 2021 EU qualifier (1-3), Nordic Blast Premier Fall Showdown qualifier and V4 Future Festival qualifier.

Here are some of the things we learned:

• Fnatic is not just a rollercoaster team. They sometimes fall completely off the tracks, like when they lose to 00Nation, or O PLANO as they were called just yesterday.
• Movistar Riders haven't lost a step since getting rid of smooya, as they qualified to IEM Fall 2021 together with Copenhagen Flames.
• Copenhagen Flames have in roeJ someone who deserves to play at a higher level. We wouldn't be surprised to see him that chance soon.
• MAD Lions and Fiend also qualified to IEM Fall 2021 - the former without dropping a single map.
• GORILLAZ, headlined by flusha, sunNy and sergej, just isn't going anywhere. Not even a top 4 in any of the qualifiers they attended.

Elsewhere Sinners continued to absolutely demolish the T2 competition, with oskar dropping a masterclass versus Akuma in the V4 Qualifier final.

And while the Tunesian-Latvian-Jordanian-Iraqi mix of NASR didn't manage to qualify to any of the events, the #216 in the world took down some heavy hitters - including GORILLAZ, Tricked and an overtime victory against LDLC.

It might not be Tier 1, but it's still really exciting.