Cloud9 have secured the final spot at DreamHack Open Leipzig 2020 following a 2-0 victory over eUnited in the grand final of the North American closed qualifier.

Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou's troops began their bracket run by comfortably securing a win over Triumph in their opening matchup, setting up a rematch of the IEM Katowice 2020 closed qualifier upper bracket final against Complexity. Cloud9 did one better than in their previous bout against Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer and company as this time they took the victory in two maps, albeit in narrow fashion as they both went the distance, seeing Cloud9 narrowly edge out a pair of 16-14 wins on Dust2 and Inferno.

Meanwhile, eUnited fought their way through the opposite side of the bracket, utilizing recently-benched Chaos rifler Gage "⁠Infinite⁠" Green in place of Kaleb "⁠moose⁠" Jayne amid reports of a possible move to a new TSM roster for the Canadian. The swap proved to be a boon for the team as they swiftly pushed past Chaos and Gen.G, with the latter squad playing their final match with Hunter "⁠SicK⁠" Mims as a stand-in before the arrival of Hansel "⁠BnTeT⁠" Ferdinand.

Sonic's AWPing helped Cloud9 take the series over the line on Inferno

The grand final began on Overpass, where eUnited were able to initially maintain a lead following a pistol round win; however, control of the latter portion of the first half went firmly in the favor of Cloud9 as they rebounded from a 2-5 deficit to pull ahead by three rounds at the break.

It didn't take long for Cloud9 to claim match point in the second half as they pushed up to a 15-9 scoreline, but the AWP of Austin "⁠Cooper⁠" Abadir began to wreak havoc around the map to allow eUnited to rally back and force overtime. There, with the economy on even footing, Cloud9 were able to counter eUnited's sniper with utility and executes, only conceding a single round on the road to a 19-16 map one victory.

Cloud9 maintained momentum as Inferno got underway, dominating eUnited for much of the first half as they won eight of the first nine rounds. A late resurgence allowed eUnited to bring themselves within three rounds of their opposition at halftime, with a pistol round victory helping to tie up the scoreline at 9-9. Cloud9 did not concede the lead though, quickly regaining their footing through relentless grenade damage and the AWPs of Josh "⁠oSee⁠" Ohm and Aran "⁠Sonic⁠" Groesbeek to lock out eUnited and secure the map victory 16-10.

DreamHack Open Leipzig 2020 North America Closed QualifierBest of 3 Cloud9Matchpage 2 0 13th January 2020 eUnited 19Overpass 16 16Inferno 10

Cloud9	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Aran 'Sonic' GroesbeekSonic	45 - 41	+4	76.4	1.17
Josh 'oSee' OhmoSee	44 - 36	+8	74.9	1.14
Ricky 'floppy' Kemeryfloppy	40 - 41	-1	82.9	1.10
Ian 'motm' Hardymotm	44 - 42	+2	78.3	1.08
Johnny 'JT' TheodosiouJT	37 - 43	-6	64.9	0.88

eUnited	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Austin 'Cooper' AbadirCooper	50 - 44	+6	78.5	1.15
Edgar 'MarKE' MaldonadoMarKE	42 - 43	-1	76.5	1.12
Ryan 'freakazoid' Abadirfreakazoid	43 - 39	+4	78.7	1.08
Gage 'Infinite' GreenInfinite	38 - 43	-5	71.5	1.02
Victor 'food' Wongfood	30 - 43	-13	63.2	0.85

The complete team list for DreamHack Open Leipzig 2020, which is set to run from January 24-26 with $100,000 on offer, looks as follows:

North
Virtus.pro
Sprout
HEROIC Renegades
BIG
MAD Lions
Cloud9 Josh 'oSee' Ohm Age: 20 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 567 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.64 Renegades #24 Simon 'Sico' WilliamsChristopher 'dexter' NongJoshua 'INS' PotterJordan 'Hatz' BajicLiam 'malta' Schembri Sprout #28 Tomáš 'oskar' ŠťastnýTimo 'Spiidi' RichterDenis 'denis' HowellJosef 'faveN' BaumannPaweł 'dycha' Dycha HEROIC #16 Marco 'Snappi' PfeifferCasper 'cadiaN' MøllerPatrick 'es3tag' HansenJohannes 'b0RUP' BorupMartin 'stavn' Lund Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek Age: 21 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 1.14 Maps played: 550 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.63 Cloud9 #18 Aran 'Sonic' GroesbeekJohnny 'JT' TheodosiouRicky 'floppy' KemeryIan 'motm' HardyJosh 'oSee' Ohm Complexity William 'RUSH' WierzbaKristian 'k0nfig' WieneckeValentin 'poizon' VasilevOwen 'oBo' SchlatterBenjamin 'blameF' Bremer Hunter 'SicK' Mims Age: 21 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 756 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.68 Virtus.pro #17 Dauren 'AdreN' KystaubayevSanjar 'SANJI' KulievTimur 'buster' TulepovAlexey 'Qikert' GolubevDzhami 'Jame' Ali Chaos #56 Joshua 'steel' NissanOwen 'smooya' ButterfieldCameron 'cam' KernBen 'ben1337' SmithMaxim 'wippie' Shepelev Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou Age: 20 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 529 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.67 Kaleb 'moose' Jayne Age: 21 Team: eUnited Rating 1.0: 1.12 Maps played: 620 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.64 BIG #46 Johannes 'tabseN' WodarzTizian 'tiziaN' FeldbuschFlorian 'syrsoN' RischeIsmailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşNils 'k1to' Gruhne TSM Gen.G #50 Hansel 'BnTeT' FerdinandDamian 'daps' SteeleTimothy 'autimatic' TaKenneth 'koosta' SuenSam 's0m' Oh eUnited #40 Ryan 'freakazoid' AbadirVictor 'food' WongEdgar 'MarKE' MaldonadoKaleb 'moose' JayneAustin 'Cooper' Abadir MAD Lions #21 Nicolai 'HUNDEN' PetersenLucas 'Bubzkji' AndersenFrederik 'acoR' GyldstrandRasmus 'sjuush' BeckFredrik 'roeJ' Jørgensen Triumph #90 Jack 'xCeeD' HolimanLogan 'Voltage' LongRyan 'Snakes' AmannMichael 'Grim' WinceGabe 'Spongey' Greiner Hansel 'BnTeT' Ferdinand Age: 24 Team: Gen.G Rating 1.0: 1.19 Maps played: 755 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.61 Gage 'Infinite' Green Age: 21 Team: ChaosB Rating 1.0: 1.12 Maps played: 428 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.65 North #20 René 'cajunb' BorgPhilip 'aizy' AistrupMarkus 'Kjaerbye' KjærbyeJakob 'JUGi' HansenNicklas 'gade' Gade Benjamin 'blameF' Bremer Age: 22 Team: Complexity Rating 1.0: 1.17 Maps played: 348 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.62 Austin 'Cooper' Abadir Age: 25 Team: eUnited Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 468 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.63