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The Oceania closed qualifier for the Asia Minor concludes with Grayhound and Renegades claiming the two qualification spots to the next stage.

After qualifying for ESEA MDL Season 29 Global Challenge and PLG Grand Slam this month, Grayhound continued their dominant form in the BO3 double-elimination Asia Minor qualifier.

Erdenetsogt "⁠erkaSt⁠" Gantulga and co. trounced TRIDENT in their opening match-up and edged past local rivals ORDER and Renegades in the upper bracket, where they became the first squad from the Oceanic region to qualify for the Asia Minor.

Grayhound secure their first Asia Minor appearance

After missing out on IEM Chicago due to visa issues, Renegades' coach Aleksandar "⁠kassad⁠" Trifunović reunited with "the boys" in Sydney, Australia ahead of the closed qualifier.

Aaron "⁠AZR⁠" Ward's crew ran over Breakaway in their opener and followed it up with a close 2-1 victory against former comrade Karlo "⁠USTILO⁠" Pivac' Tainted Minds in the upper bracket semi-final.

Despite falling to Grayhound in the upper bracket final in a nail-biting series, Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage' side bounced back in the consolidation final, where they fought Tainted Minds for the second time and claimed the last qualification spot for the Asia Minor.

Grayhound and Renegades will join six other Asian teams at the Minor from January 22-26 in Katowice, Poland. From there, the top two teams will advance to the IEM Katowice 2019 Major's New Challenger Stage, while the third-place team will be given another chance to qualify on January 27 against the other regions' third-place sides.

The complete list for the Asia Minor Championship is as follows:

ViCi
MVP PK
Beyond
Grayhound CyberZen
GOSU
exDT
Renegades GOSU #146 Hae-Sung 'HSK' KimHong-Gyo 'Jinx' JungGu-Taek 'stax' KimJong-Min 'Lakia' KimGi-Seok 'SeokE' Kim Beyond #78 Tosapol 'TOR' SaekowPeeratch 'Olivia' IngkudanondaThotsaphon 'cbbk' SuphatthanaphalaphonAnupong 'stk' MueangngamKritthee 'Geniuss' Sawatmuang Karlo 'USTILO' Pivac Age: 25 Team: Tainted Minds Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 639 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.70 Erdenetsogt 'erkaSt' Gantulga Age: 23 Team: Grayhound Rating 1.0: 1.12 Maps played: 504 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.66 exDT #85 Guy 'anarkez' TrachtmanShiran 'shushan' ShushanAnton 'hydra' SviridonGal 'Meow' ShmulevichRoey 'ZENCER' Kimhi Justin 'jks' Savage Age: 22 Team: Renegades Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 690 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.63 TRIDENT #132 Wilson 'willyKS' SugiantoMartin 'waffe' ChanByron 'Spesh' RowlinsonCaleb 'klebz' LeungLuke 'ekul' Blakey Renegades #21 Justin 'jks' SavageAaron 'AZR' WardJoakim 'jkaem' MyrbostadSean 'Gratisfaction' KaiwaiJay 'Liazz' Tregillgas Tainted Minds #88 Karlo 'USTILO' PivacMike 'ap0c' AliferisRyan 'zewsy' PalmerChris 'ofnu' HanleySimon 'Sico' Williams ORDER #81 Chris 'emagine' RowlandsAlistair 'aliStair' JohnstonJoshua 'INS' PotterJordan 'Hatz' BajicCharlie 'zeph' Dodd Aaron 'AZR' Ward Age: 26 Team: Renegades Rating 1.0: 1.01 Maps played: 693 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.69 Breakaway #160 Alec 'Noisia' GulabovskiAndrew 'YDNA' AdamsJireh 'J1rah' YouakimJared 'hazr' O'BreeLuke 'Llamas' Merchant ViCi #63 Zhuo 'advent' LiangWeiJie 'zhokiNg' ZhongZhiHong 'aumaN' LiuAndrew 'kaze' KhongWingHei 'Freeman' Cheung Grayhound #52 Christopher 'dexter' NongErdenetsogt 'erkaSt' GantulgaLiam 'malta' SchembriEuan 'sterling' MooreOllie 'DickStacy' Tierney CyberZen #40 Bin 'Savage' LiuBingYuan 'tb' LiZhen 'HZ' HuangLei 'bottle' MaoLifan 'Viva' Ran Aleksandar 'kassad' Trifunović Age: 32 Team: RenegadesC MVP PK #32 Keun-Chul 'solo' KangMin-Soo 'glow' KimMin-Seok 'zeff' ParkHyun-Pyo 'XigN' LeeSeon-Ho 'xeta' Son