Sharks qualify for ESL Pro League Season 10 Americas

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Sharks have booked the final spot in ESL Pro League Season 10 Americas after winning the Latin America North Open qualifier.

The tournament was supposed to feature teams with at least three players living in countries from Latin America North, but Sharks, who had moved to Dallas earlier in the month, managed to bend the rules and gain access to the qualifier by sending their Brazilian trio down to Mexico for a day, sparking outrage amongst the region's players.

Without surprise, Sharks cruised through the single-elimination open qualifier as they hammered Peruvian duo ryokas and Supremacy, with neither side managing to reach double digits even once.

Sharks advance to the EPL Americas stage

The Brazilian team will move directly into the Pro League Season 10 Americas stage, skipping the South American relegation phase following the disbandment of the Denial roster, which had finished at the bottom of its Americas group in season 9.

Colombian veteran Juanes "⁠sickLy⁠" Valencia was one of the players who took to Twitter to criticize Sharks' eligibility in the qualifier, which in his opinion represents a major setback for the entire region.

"To travel to a region like Latin America North to play in this qualifier is a huge blow for our scene because, regrettably, this is not like Latin America South, which has way more tournaments and a stable [tournament] circuit," sickLy wrote.

"To go to Mexico with three players to be able to meet the rules, which said that players HAD to live in the regions seem to me like a low blow.

"You can argue that there are Brazilian teams doing the same in North America, but we must be realistic. The amount of resources and the number of opportunities in the United States is at least 50 teams bigger than in Latin America North. This is the only decent competition that the region has, and it is sad that other South Americans can take what little others have while they can attend every tournament in North America."

UPDATE:Contacted by HLTV.org, Sharks coach Hélder "⁠coachi⁠" Sancho explained that, since there was not a qualifier in Latin America South, ESL gave his team the green light to participate in the tournament as long as the majority of their roster traveled to the region to compete.

The qualification comes in what has been a very busy week for Sharks. The Brazilian team, who revamped their squad in the off-season by signing Argentinian duo Ignacio "⁠meyern⁠" Meyer and Luca "⁠Luken⁠" Nadotti, finished the ECS Season 7 Pinnacle Cup with a 3-0 record and are in the lower bracket final of the North American closed qualifier for DreamHack Masters Malmö, in which they will face ATK.

The ESL Pro League Season 10 Americas will run from October 10 through November 18 and will consist of 16 teams, who will duke it out for six spots at the season finals. The final team list is the following:

NRG
MIBR
ex-Luminosity
Renegades
Isurus
Complexity
FURIA
Envy Liquid
Cloud9
DETONA
Ghost
eUnited
Infinity
Swole Patrol
Sharks NRG #3 Peter 'stanislaw' JarguzTarik 'tarik' CelikVincent 'Brehze' CayonteEthan 'Ethan' ArnoldTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov Swole Patrol #43 Braxton 'swag' PierceJaccob 'yay' WhiteakerYassine 'Subroza' TaoufikJason 'neptune' TranJordan 'Zellsis' Montemurro Denial #246 Julio 'VAATI' JimenezJuanes 'sickLy' ValenciaCarlos 'Blue' AresteguiJesus 'sam_A' TaboadaEduardo 'Link' Osuna ATK #287 Aran 'Sonic' GroesbeekJohnny 'JT' TheodosiouRicky 'floppy' KemeryIan 'motm' HardyJosh 'oSee' Ohm eUnited #100 Victor 'food' WongEdgar 'MarKE' MaldonadoAnthony 'vanity' MalaspinaKaleb 'moose' JayneAustin 'Cooper' Abadir ex-Luminosity #37 Lucas 'steel' LopesRicardo 'boltz' PrassJoão 'felps' VasconcellosGabriel 'NEKIZ' SchenatoFelipe 'skullz' Medeiros Luca 'Luken' Nadotti Age: 22 Team: Sharks Rating 1.0: 1.19 Maps played: 137 KPR: 0.80 DPR: 0.63 Sharks #35 Raphael 'exit' LacerdaLeonardo 'leo_drk' OliveiraJhonatan 'jnt' SilvaIgnacio 'meyern' MeyerLuca 'Luken' Nadotti Renegades #11 Justin 'jks' SavageAaron 'AZR' WardJoakim 'jkaem' MyrbostadSean 'Gratisfaction' KaiwaiJay 'Liazz' Tregillgas DETONA #125 Matheus 'prt' ScuveroMatheus 'Tuurtle' AnhaiaAndré 'tiburci0' RossettoVinicius 'vsm' MoreiraLucas 'Lucaozy' Neves Ghost Matthew 'WARDELL' Yu Cloud9 #27 Oscar 'mixwell' CañellasDamian 'daps' SteeleTimothy 'autimatic' TaKenneth 'koosta' SuenTyson 'TenZ' Ngo MIBR #15 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoVito 'kNgV-' GiuseppeFernando 'fer' AlvarengaLucas 'LUCAS1' TelesEpitacio 'TACO' de Melo Complexity #26 Shahzeb 'ShahZaM' KhanRory 'dephh' JacksonHunter 'SicK' MimsOwen 'oBo' Schlatter ryokas Kelvin 'Tipo1' MendozaMauricio 'DURAN' DuranChirstopher 'ExtasY' LurquinAlvaro 'chinoinsane' Fan ZhouAngel 'Imbaboy' Ramos Ignacio 'meyern' Meyer Age: 17 Team: Sharks Rating 1.0: 1.15 Maps played: 201 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.66 Supremacy Bruno 'BRUNO' HernandezAntonio 'zockie' MontañezJoel 'TORITO' Rios ManriqueStephane 'Guepard' CazzotesRenato 'pacmanN' Morales Infinity #144 Jesus 'sam_A' TaboadaJavier 'cruzN' CruzAndres 'spamzzy' CorreaSantiago 'Daveeys' GalvisMario 'malbsMd' Samayoa Envy #41 Jacob 'FugLy' MedinaBradley 'ANDROID' FodorNoah 'Nifty' FrancisSam 's0m' Oh FURIA #14 Andrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosVinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoKaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoRinaldo 'ableJ' Moda Junior Hélder 'coachi' Sancho Age: 32 Team: SharksC Liquid #1 Nick 'nitr0' CannellaKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJake 'Stewie2K' YipRussel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken Isurus #135 Nicolás 'Noktse' DávilaRoberto 'reversive' ThemthamNabil 'nbl' AleuaMaximiliano 'max' GonzalezGabriel '1962' Sinopoli Juanes 'sickLy' Valencia Age: 27 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.95 Maps played: 240 KPR: 0.64 DPR: 0.66