OpTic through to CEVO finals

OpTic Gaming have secured the first spot at the CEVO Gfinity Season 9 Finals after topping the first North American bracket tournament.

Sixteen teams from across North America competed in the first of four single-elimination brackets that will be hosted by CEVO with a view to finding the region's representatives at the season finals, where $125,000 will be on offer.

The biggest surprises of the tournament came in the early exits of Splyce, who had been the surprise package of the offline qualifier for MLG Columbus, and of CLG following defeats against AGG and NRG, respectively.

ShahZaM's OpTic will go to London 

Liquid, who breezed past Noble and Complexity during the first two backet rounds, were denied by OpTic in the semi-final stage in a three-map thriller, with Shahzeb "⁠ShahZaM⁠" Khan's men gaining momentum after overturning a 3-12 deficit on de_train to win the map in overtime.

The Canadian team went on to face Selfless in the grand final, picking up a 2-0 victory over the former Enemy side following 16-6 and 16-7 wins on de_overpass and de_mirage, respectively.

CEVO Gfinity Professional Season 9Best of 3 SelflessMatchpage 0 2 9th March 2016 OpTic 6Overpass 16 7Mirage 16

The CEVO Season 9 Finals will take place at the Gfinity Arena, in London, from April 28 to May 1, and feature four representatives from both Europe and North America. You can follow our coverage of the first European bracket, which is still underway, here.

OpTic #24 William 'RUSH' WierzbaShahzeb 'ShahZaM' KhanPeter 'stanislaw' JarguzKeith 'NAF' MarkovicDamian 'daps' Steele Shahzeb 'ShahZaM' Khan Age: 22 Team: OpTic Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 251 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.66 Noble #68 Tyler 'Char' WallaceJaccob 'yay' WhiteakerDaniel 'virtus' CarrilloJosh 'joshbM' BlierCorey 'flashstep' Parks Splyce #23 Arya 'arya' HekmatAbraham 'abE' FazliDavid 'DAVEY' StaffordJason 'jasonR' RuchelskiAndrew 'Professor_Chaos' Heintz AGG #63 Ellis 'els' ClayKyle 'OCEAN' O'BrienDavid 'inVert' MonroeSteven 'rooRoooo' HerrellRussel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken Liquid #15 Spencer 'Hiko' MartinNick 'nitr0' CannellaOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiKenneth 'koosta' Suen Complexity #59 Danny 'fRoD' MontanerRory 'dephh' JacksonDaniel 'roca' GustaferriJoshua 'sancz' BallengerJosh 'shinobi' Abastado NRG #39 Fatih 'gob b' DayikNikola 'LEGIJA' NinićPeter 'ptr' GurneyJustin 'just9n' OrtizSamuel 'SileNt' Portillo CLG #14 Stephen 'reltuC' CutlerJosh 'jdm64' MarzanoJames 'hazed' CobbJacob 'FugLy' MedinaTarik 'tarik' Celik