Alongside the Asia RMR, which we’ve already previewed, the Americas qualifier is also kicking off in a couple of days - and, in our humble opinion, it’s far more exciting to watch. That is, unless you’re waking up at 4AM to catch it.

This RMR features 16 teams, with only 7 Major spots up for grabs.

Liquid and FURIA are our safe bets. Both are solid teams that have proven they can compete at the highest level, so they should have little trouble making it, even if they drop a map or two. That said, knowing how hit or miss they can be, there’s always the chance we might be terribly wrong.

Now, this is where things get interesting. With five spots left, there’s a group of teams that will likely be duking it out for the sticker money: Complexity, paiN, MIBR, 9z, M80, and Imperial.

These teams are all at a similar level, at least based on what we’ve seen from them recently. If we had to guess, paiN and Complexity are probably the closest to challenging Liquid and FURIA in terms of likelihood to advance, but it’s going to get messy - and that’s exactly what we’re here for.

As for the rest - BOSS, Legacy, Nouns, Wildcard, KRÜ, RED Canids, BESTIA, and Case - they’ll likely steal a map from the bigger teams, but that's probably as far as it'll go. Hey, at least you got a paid trip to China - could be worse, right?

Of course, it wouldn’t be an Americas RMR without its share of upsets, so forget everything we just said - chances are, it’ll end up being the complete opposite.