Norway, Hungary and Italy have qualified for the main stage of European Championship 2013 by knocking out Iceland, Romania and Croatia, respectively.
Second and last round of qualifications for this online competition between European nations began on Friday and continued today, with three new teams clinching their spot for the main stage.
The most interesting match during the qualifications so far featured two Nordic countries, Norway and Iceland, go back and forth during three maps.
"The land of fire and ice" has until now been inactive in CS:GO, as we first saw Iceland compete only in the previous round of qualifications for EC 2013 when they defeated Israel 2-0.
Nevertheless, they put up a great fight this evening, with their best player from the Israel match, Trausti "kutter" Tryggvason, leading the way to a 16-11 opening win on de_dust2_se with 29 kills.
cENTRYZ top fragged in the Nordic clash
However, Norway, who featured DreamHack Summer 2013 runner-up Martin "cENTRYZ" Brandal, retaliated on de_mirage_ce with a 16-14 win, which in fairness came after a 15-6 lead.
The final map was de_inferno_se, where despite Iceland's good start, Norway came out on top 16-9 as another talented youngster, 19-year-old Ruben "RUBINO" Villarroel, topped the charts with a 26:14 score.
European Championship 2013 Qualification Round 2Best of 3 NorwayMatchpage 2 1 22nd September 2013 Iceland 11Dust2_se 16 16Mirage_ce 14 16Inferno_se 9
Norway
K - D
+/-
ADR
Rating 1.0
Adam 'PAINT' FjellumPAINT
67 - 56
+11
-
1.22
Martin 'cENTRYZ' BrandalcENTRYZ
69 - 53
+16
-
1.19
Ruben 'RUBINO' VillarroelRUBINO
63 - 56
+7
-
1.09
Halvor 'vENdetta' GulestølvENdetta
53 - 51
+2
-
0.96
Bjoern 'Skurk' MaarenSkurk
44 - 60
-16
-
0.75
Iceland
K - D
+/-
ADR
Rating 1.0
Trausti 'kutter' Tryggvasonkutter
67 - 58
+9
-
1.19
Daníel 'dannoz' Aron Sigurjónssondannoz
58 - 56
+2
-
1.03
Andri 'dripz' Már Maríusondripz
52 - 56
-4
-
0.96
Ólafur 'ofvirkur' Barði Guðmunddsonofvirkur
53 - 66
-13
-
0.82
Tumi 'Skipid' GeirssonSkipid
45 - 61
-16
-
0.75
Earlier in the week, the first match of this round took place between Hungary and Romania, and the two neighboring countries were expected to fight a close battle.
Romania were perhaps slight favorites considering the recently acquired LAN experience by all of their players at DreamHack Bucharest, but despite that, Hungary ended up completely dominating the encounter and winning 16-5 on de_mirage_ce and 16-8 on de_dust2_se, thus moving on to the group stage.
European Championship 2013 Qualification Round 2Best of 2 HungaryMatchpage 2 0 20th September 2013 Romania 16Mirage_ce 5 16Dust2_se 8
Hungary
K - D
+/-
ADR
Rating 1.0
Gábor 'gabesson' Málovicsgabesson
39 - 23
+16
-
1.37
Dániel 'FoDa' FodorFoDa
36 - 21
+15
-
1.30
András 'ZEN' HidvégiZEN
37 - 21
+16
-
1.26
Viktor 'flashie' Tamás Beaflashie
37 - 23
+14
-
1.24
Arnold 'NEY' KissNEY
32 - 24
+8
-
1.09
Romania
K - D
+/-
ADR
Rating 1.0
Cosmin-Andrei 'WHitE' CetanasWHitE
28 - 33
-5
-
0.97
Cătălin-Ionuț 'BTN' StănescuBTN
28 - 37
-9
-
0.85
Bogdan-Catalin 'keemo' Lungkeemo
22 - 35
-13
-
0.71
Alexandru-Ionut 'tALAZIz' LeoveanutALAZIz
21 - 40
-19
-
0.52
Alexandru 'JAGUAR' ArdeleanuJAGUAR
12 - 36
-24
-
0.39
The second match from this evening paired up Italy and Croatia, the latter of which came from QR1 where they easily beat Montenegro 2-0.
Similarly to Iceland, Croatia has been largely inactive in the scene prior to this competition, while Italy has seen CPLAY representing them for two seasons straight in SLTV StarSeries, making the odds in their favor.
It all went according to plan for the Italians in the beginning as they took an 11-4 CT-side lead on de_inferno_se, but Croatia, led by 24 AWP kills from Toni "anakintm" Miličević, made a big comeback and won after overtime 21-18.
That wasn't enough though, since Italy replied with two convincing victories and secured a group stage spot after 16-7 on de_nuke_se and 16-4 on de_train_se, powered by Christian "Stylahhhhh" Forte who was top rated in both of the maps.
European Championship 2013 Qualification Round 2Best of 3 ItalyMatchpage 2 1 22nd September 2013 Croatia 18Inferno_se 21 16Nuke_se 7 16Train_se 4
Italy
K - D
+/-
ADR
Rating 1.0
Christian 'Stylahhhhh' ForteStylahhhhh
64 - 49
+15
-
1.22
Riccardo 'kIMERA' D'UrsokIMERA
65 - 47
+18
-
1.21
Vladimir 'BAUS' VashchenkoBAUS
65 - 46
+19
-
1.17
Enrico 'baaaaN' VenerusobaaaaN
60 - 50
+10
-
1.07
Lorenzo 'biohazard' Garufibiohazard
59 - 52
+7
-
1.01
Croatia
K - D
+/-
ADR
Rating 1.0
Toni 'anakintm' Miličevićanakintm
62 - 57
+5
-
1.00
Antonio 'HRZA' HrženjakHRZA
50 - 60
-10
-
0.95
Stijepo 'MadBonE' MajkovicaMadBonE
50 - 67
-17
-
0.80
Kristijan 'Spexie' ŠpeharSpexie
45 - 64
-19
-
0.70
Amel 'F1sTaH' HodžićF1sTaH
36 - 65
-29
-
0.60
These three countries will join the 12 that were placed directly in the group stage, while nine more will be added by September 26th, when QR2 is expected to finish. Here is the list of nations that currently have a stop in the group stage:
Sweden
France
Denmark
Russia
Germany
Poland
Belgium
Ukraine
United Kingdom
Slovakia
Finland
Portugal
Norway
Hungary
Italy
Stay tuned to HLTV.org as we will continue bringing you coverage from the qualifications for European Championship 2013.