Gizmy powers 100T to the main stage of EWC alongside BIG, K27 and JiJieHao

We got to see some prime s1mple and it still wasn't enough to beat Gizmy at the EWC Last Chance Qualifier.

The new IGL of 100T was brought in to get the best out of their stars, but instead seems to have become the star. He was the best player on the server to drag 100T to a third map with a win on Nuke, and then heavily involved in everything that went 100T's way on Anubis to grab a main stage berth.

This is a crushing blow for BC.Game who looked at this as a great shot at their first tier one tournament of the season, and were in pole position after new boy mzinho went berserk on Inferno, but it simply was not to be. When things were rolling, they were rocking, but as soon as things got dicey we saw holes appear in the close games.

This is something new teams often face, but they'll be looking back at the Gizmy 1v3 to save the game on Nuke as something of a sliding doors moment - at least for this tournament, and perhaps for future ones too. A simple 2-0 would have changed so much about how we think about this team already.

If that wasn't enough, Gizmy won a 1v2 at 11-11 on Anubis to swing the tide too. The guy was just a menace.

s1mple must be fuming, because he put up some demonic gameplay today. We saw some prime s1mple at times, with some outrageous multikills.

gr1ks put in serious work to help BIG move past Sashi in a heated match-up.

Sashi tried to get in BIG's heads, but just seemed to wind gr1ks up and push him to play even better. He dropped a 2 K/D on Cache and went even further on Ancient to bury the Danes and grab one of the four remaining spots at EWC.

He wasn't great on Inferno, mind you, where Sashi initially equalised the series, but went nuclear on the decider as BIG were relatively comfortable in victory.

Another big name - fnatic - won't be joining us in Paris for the main stage as they were dispatched by K27.

This being an all CIS match-up does feel a bit weird, and fnatic's heart and soul just doesn't seem to be there any more. They fell flat on Cache after a lively second map and were rightfully beaten by K27, who have earnt their spot in the event.

They've got kashl1d to thank, though, after he was crucial to their win on Mirage with 26 kills, including a clean 3k in the final round that included him sprinting into mid and fighting window with an AWP.

Brave.

JiJieHao took the final spot in a marathon day as they pushed past HOTU also in three maps.

This was a back-and-forth brawl and it feels wrong to point to any singular moment or player as a stand-out, but if we had to, Bibu had some massive moments on Dust 2 along with CacaNito to bring it home.