Cloud9 fought their way through the upper bracket of the DreamHack Masters Spring North America closed qualifier to earn the first of two spots in the main event.

Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou and his troops kicked off their upper bracket run in the closed qualifier with a win over New England Whalers, where Ricky "⁠floppy⁠" Kemery led the way for his side to take a victory in two maps.

The team's ensuing match against Bad News Bears proved to be less competitive as Cloud9 remained in control throughout, managing a pair of 11-4 halves on Train and Overpass to sweep the series and set up an upper bracket final bout against Envy.

The two teams traded maps to kick off the series, Envy narrowly prevailing on their pick of Nuke 16-14 before a stellar offense from Cloud9 on Overpass evened the series score, with JT's side taking the win 16-5.

Envy seemed set to reply in kind on Train, dominating Cloud9's defenses for much as the first half as they ran up an 11-4 scoreline at the break. A pistol win kicked off the comeback effort for Cloud9, with JT and company managing five rounds before Envy clawed back with three of their own to sit upon a 14-9 lead. Cloud9 refused to concede however, running back seven rounds in a row to snatch victory from the hands of Envy, edging out the win 16-14.

One spot in the main event remains to be determined, with Envy facing off against the winner of the lower bracket final match between Bad News Bears and Swole Patrol on Monday.

The team list for DreamHack Masters Spring North America now consists of: