The NA Final Qualifiers were held for Global Challenge New York yesterday with 10 teams battling to finish in those top 4 qualifying spaces.

The tournament saw the #1 and #2 teams from Global Challenge Cologne, Counter Logic Gaming and Rock Solid vying to earn their place at the Global Challenge on their own continent.

The favourites to qualify all won their early games but in the Upper Bracket semi-final we had somewhat of a shock result.

Rock Solid qualify for New York

Global Challenge Cologne winners CLG lost their match against Rock Solid .

RS have been involved in the NA scene for quite a while but have never really breached the top 2, with nobody infact really knocking CLG or TSM off the top 2 spots.

RS however were able to send CLG to the lower bracket and they did it with a line-up which goes against the current meta game.

Bans:
CLG: Kog'maw, Lee Sin, Akali
RS: Orianna, Zilean, Jax

Picks:
CLG: Alistar | Nocturne| Ashe | Nasus, Ryze
RS: Gangplank| Udyr | Caitlyn| Renekton | Katarina

As you can see, RS went against the grain of the current meta, opting to run with no support but a dual bot-lane of Gangplank and Caitlyn. This bot-lane provided some great poke while having the threat of an Udyr gank.

Team SoloMid qualify for New York

The second team for qualify for the NY Global Challenge was TSM who finished 2nd in Cologne.

They progressed to the upper bracket final by defeating a team who are relatively unknown to EU players, Team Rez .

Bans:
TSM: Morgana, Garen, Kog'maw
Rez: Fiddlesticks, Orianna, Zilean

Picks:
TSM: Lee Sin | Soraka | Singed | Gragas | Caitlyn
Rez: Karthus| Amumu | Vayne | Alistar | Teemo

TSM ran with a fairly strong poke line-up, both Gragas and Caitlyn able to poke with Soraka providing superior sustain compared with Alistar.

In addition TSM could keep Karthus and Amumu where they wanted them with Gragas and Singed on hand to disrupt. Overall strong picks for TSM which allowed them to earn their spot in New York.

Team Rez and CLG were to both drop into the lower bracket where they still had a chance to qualify.



Team Curse Academy qualify for New York

CLG's next match was against Team Curse Academy who had previously lost to Rez in the upper bracket.

CLG will have been going into this match with confidence despite their previous defeat. The winners of this match would earn the 3rd NA spot for New York.

However Curse had other ideas.

CLG: Kog'Maw | Brand | Singed | Sona | Jax
Curse: Soraka | Swain | Ryze | Warwick | Caitlyn

Fairly typical line-ups from both teams, with Curse's perhaps raising a few eyebrows with the inclusion of Swain and Ryze. Although Ryze is building in popularity a little again recently.

The scores were close finishing at 11-8 kills but Curse were able to secure that 3rd spot, dumping CLG out of the tournament.

Team Rez qualify for New York

The 4th and final team to qualify for New York from the NA Region was that of Team Rez who managed to defeat unRestricted eSports .

The final qualifiers for the region will be this coming weekend, where SK Gaming will be hoping to qualify.