JiJieHao became the final team to advance through the Esports World Cup open qualifier after a 2-1 win over HOTU (Mirage 7-13, Cache 13-9, Dust2 13-11).
JiJieHao join 100 Thieves, BIG, and K27 as the teams to progress to EWC's main stage, with Dionis "sinnopsyy" Budeci's troops undoubtedly being the biggest shock of the qualifier.
They narrowly progressed through the group stage after a three-map series against Sangal in the decider match, but found their groove in the playoffs with three 2-1 wins.
DENDELE were first to fall in a big upset to start off their run before Hussein "m1N1" Hijazi topped the server in a victory against Phantom.
That meant they would meet HOTU, who were ranked 28 places above them in the VRS, for a spot at the main event.
The international squad kept their cool against the favored majority-Russian combine, however, and eventually closed out the series with a 13-11 win on Dust2 thanks to a masterful performance by Bebu "Bibu" Aadil, who put up a 1.41 rating on the decider.
The result means that the 32 squads set to compete in EWC's main stage are now decided, with the team list looking as follows:
- Falcons
- Spirit
- FURIA
- Vitality
- MOUZ
- Natus Vincere
- 9z
- Aurora
- G2
- BetBoom
- FaZe
- Legacy
- Astralis
- The MongolZ
- FUT
- PARIVISION
- B8
- paiN
- 3DMAX
- GamerLegion
- magic
- Luminosity
- MIBR
- TYLOO
- Ninjas in Pyjamas
- BIG
- M80
- Lynn Vision
- 100 Thieves
- K27
- Wildcard
- JiJieHao