Team Liquid, Tempo Storm, and CLG are the three North American teams who have secured spots at DreamHack Masters Malmö via the North American closed qualifier bracket.

The $250,000 DreamHack Masters Malmö event taking place from April 12-17 in Sweden's third largest city will see eight invited teams (most of whom fall into our top eight Global Ranking) battle with eight who have advanced via four separate regional qualifiers, two for Europe and one apiece for North America and Asia.

The North American qualifier for DreamHack Masters Malmö similarly featured eight invited teams such as Cloud9, Liquid, and Renegades battling eight teams coming from an open qualifier for three spots to the Swedish tournament.

hen1 had a phenomenal performance throughout the qualifier

The single elimination, best-of-three bracket saw the likes of Echo Fox, Splyce, NRG, and OpTic drop out by the round of eight, with the latter two teams playing close games against Cloud9 and Tempo Storm respectively.

The first decider game to take place was between North American rivals Liquid and CLG with the former team sporting their newfound addition Kenneth "⁠koosta⁠" Suen as well as the talk-of-the-town in Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev.

The series was a complete blowout as Liquid dismantled CLG 16-1 on de_mirage and 16-4 on de_dust2.

DreamHack Masters Malmö 2016 NA Closed QualifierBest of 3 CLGMatchpage 0 2 22nd February 2016 Liquid 1Mirage 16 4Dust2 16

Liquid	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Jonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEliGE	37 - 16	+21	101.2	1.75
Nick 'nitr0' Cannellanitr0	35 - 18	+17	109.5	1.68
Spencer 'Hiko' MartinHiko	34 - 13	+21	88.2	1.65
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostylievs1mple	32 - 21	+11	89.0	1.44
Kenneth 'koosta' Suenkoosta	31 - 20	+11	80.8	1.28

CLG	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
James 'hazed' Cobbhazed	16 - 32	-16	63.1	0.67
Tarik 'tarik' Celiktarik	17 - 32	-15	56.8	0.64
Josh 'jdm64' Marzanojdm64	17 - 34	-17	55.6	0.60
Stephen 'reltuC' CutlerreltuC	22 - 35	-13	65.9	0.60
Jacob 'FugLy' MedinaFugLy	16 - 36	-20	49.3	0.44

The second semifinal was a repeat of the IEM Katowice North American qualifier final as Cloud9 and Tempo Storm dueled for a slot; the Brazilian team clinched de_inferno 16-8 whereas Cloud9 took de_train 16-10.

The final map saw Tempo Storm overwhelming Jordan "⁠n0thing⁠" Gilbert and his men on their T-side as they finished the first half up 12-3 however a minor attempt at a comeback by Cloud9 did give the Brazilians a moment's hesitation before they closed out de_dust2 16-8.

DreamHack Masters Malmö 2016 NA Closed QualifierBest of 3 Cloud9Matchpage 1 2 22nd February 2016 Tempo Storm 8Inferno 16 16Train 10 8Dust2 16

Tempo Storm	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Henrique 'HEN1' TelesHEN1	62 - 32	+30	91.2	1.52
João 'felps' Vasconcellosfelps	63 - 49	+14	92.2	1.26
Ricardo 'boltz' Prassboltz	62 - 44	+18	86.9	1.24
Lucas 'LUCAS1' TelesLUCAS1	38 - 45	-7	66.7	0.96
Gustavo 'SHOOWTiME' GonçalvesSHOOWTiME	38 - 51	-13	56.1	0.80

Cloud9	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Tyler 'Skadoodle' LathamSkadoodle	54 - 47	+7	74.5	1.09
Jake 'Stewie2K' YipStewie2K	51 - 58	-7	75.5	1.02
Ryan 'freakazoid' Abadirfreakazoid	45 - 52	-7	67.1	0.93
Mike 'shroud' Grzesiekshroud	41 - 53	-12	64.9	0.87
Jordan 'n0thing' Gilbertn0thing	30 - 53	-23	53.2	0.71

CLG and Cloud9 then locked horns in the third place decider to settle which team would be the third and final to represent North America in Malmö.

Despite a sluggish start on de_cache, CLG put up a defensive wall on their CT side and took the map 16-12. The second map of de_cbble was also a story of CLG's strong defensive game as Stephen "⁠reltuC⁠" Cutler & co. took the map 16-3 off of the back of a 12-3 CT side.

DreamHack Masters Malmö 2016 NA Closed QualifierBest of 3 CLGMatchpage 2 0 22nd February 2016 Cloud9 16Cache 12 16Cobblestone 3

CLG	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Tarik 'tarik' Celiktarik	45 - 27	+18	100.8	1.48
Josh 'jdm64' Marzanojdm64	36 - 23	+13	70.7	1.30
Stephen 'reltuC' CutlerreltuC	37 - 26	+11	83.7	1.27
James 'hazed' Cobbhazed	33 - 26	+7	87.8	1.24
Jacob 'FugLy' MedinaFugLy	32 - 28	+4	75.2	1.12

Cloud9	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Mike 'shroud' Grzesiekshroud	32 - 34	-2	75.1	0.89
Ryan 'freakazoid' Abadirfreakazoid	28 - 35	-7	70.9	0.87
Jake 'Stewie2K' YipStewie2K	27 - 38	-11	64.9	0.80
Tyler 'Skadoodle' LathamSkadoodle	21 - 37	-16	50.7	0.67
Jordan 'n0thing' Gilbertn0thing	21 - 40	-19	61.2	0.63

The current list of teams who will attend DreamHack Masters Malmö is:

fnatic	Astralis	Liquid	EU Qualifier #1
Ninjas in Pyjamas	Virtus.pro	Tempo Storm	EU Qualifier #1
Envy	Natus Vincere	CLG	EU Qualifier #2
Luminosity	FaZe	Asian Qualifier	EU Qualifier #2

The next qualifier will be the first European qualifier which will run from March 12-13.

stich writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter