Liquid earned a spot at ESL One Cologne after their 2-0 victory against CLG in the grand final of the North America Closed Qualifier (16-14 on Cobblestone and 16-8 on Inferno).

The qualification process in North America started with two open qualifiers whose winners advanced to the closed qualifier. The closed stage featured six teams, four of which were invited. CLG and Liquid started the qualifier in the semis while the other four teams had to play quarter-finals.

CLG and Liquid beat Renegades and Misfits in the semis, respectively, to reach the grand final. There the two teams had a close first map—Cobblestone—where Liquid emerged victorious with a 16-14 score.

Liquid are going to Cologne

Despite only getting eight rounds on the board  as the CTs on Inferno, Liquid dominated on the T-side and won the map 16-8, and the series 2-0, qualifying for ESL One Cologne.

ESL One Cologne 2017 - North America Closed QualifierBest of 3 CLGMatchpage 0 2 21st May 2017 Liquid 14Cobblestone 16 8Inferno 16

Liquid	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Russel 'Twistzz' Van DulkenTwistzz	50 - 33	+17	88.8	1.39
Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguzstanislaw	39 - 34	+5	87.7	1.21
Josh 'jdm64' Marzanojdm64	38 - 39	-1	73.1	1.17
Jonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEliGE	40 - 33	+7	69.9	1.11
Nick 'nitr0' Cannellanitr0	28 - 36	-8	70.0	0.89

CLG	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Ricardo 'Rickeh' MulhollandRickeh	42 - 40	+2	100.8	1.28
Stephen 'reltuC' CutlerreltuC	39 - 36	+3	71.5	1.12
Ethan 'Ethan' ArnoldEthan	38 - 38	0	66.0	1.04
Pujan 'FNS' MehtaFNS	29 - 40	-11	59.6	0.81
Kenneth 'koosta' Suenkoosta	27 - 41	-14	60.4	0.78

Here is the current team list for ESL One Cologne 2017:

North	Ninjas in Pyjamas	OpTic	SK
Virtus.pro	Natus Vincere	MOUZ	fnatic
FaZe	G2	Immortals	Cloud9
Liquid	Europe qual. slot	Europe qual. slot	China qual. slot

ESL One Cologne, where sixteen teams will duke it out from July 7-9 in Germany for a $250,000 prize pool, will be the last tournament before the PGL Krakow Major. Thirteen of the teams have been decided and two of the remaining spots will be handed out in the European qualifier. The Chinese qualifier will determine the sixteenth team.