The Brazilian derby went the way of Epitacio "⁠TACO⁠" de Melo and company this time around.

GODSENT have won the North American closed qualifier for IEM Winter, defeating FURIA in the final 2-1 to secure themselves a spot at the 16-team IEM Winter set to take place in December.

The closed qualifier featured four teams, with the two finalists receiving direct invites while Extra Salt and paiN gained spots through an open qualifier. After initially suffering a defeat to FURIA in the upper bracket final, GODSENT got a chance to enact revenge by topping the lower bracket final over paiN to meet Andrei "⁠arT⁠" Piovezan's men again.

IEM Winter could be latto's first international LAN

Vertigo started off disastrously for the GODSENT side as they got battered, falling in a 1-16 defeat to FURIA. Yuri "⁠yuurih⁠" Santos was the highest fragger from the FURIA side, while GODSENT star João "⁠felps⁠" Vasconcellos had his tied second-worst map performance ever with a 0.23 rating.

GODSENT answered back on Inferno, posting a strong CT side and securing map two 16-12. Overpass saw a resurgence from felps, who put up an impressive 1.62 rating to help push his team over the line against their compatriots in FURIA. A 9-6 Terrorist side half gave GODSENT some wiggle room, which allowed them to comfortably take the decider map 16-11.

Notably, FURIA's new recruit André "⁠drop⁠" Abreu faced troubles during the series, being unable to procure a positive rating even in the 16-1 victory on Vertigo. Failing to qualify for an event such as IEM Winter puts FURIA in a tough spot going into the end of the year as they have just two events left to attend — IEM Fall, and the PGL Stockholm Major, should they qualify.

IEM Winter 2021 North America Closed QualifierBest of 3 FURIAMatchpage 1 2 5th October 2021 GODSENT 16Vertigo 1 12Inferno 16 11Overpass 16

FURIA	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Yuri 'yuurih' Santosyuurih	54 - 38	+16	80.4	1.19
Andrei 'arT' PiovezanarT	56 - 52	+4	85.4	1.13
Kaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoKSCERATO	42 - 37	+5	61.8	1.04
Vinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoVINI	49 - 46	+3	70.3	1.02
André 'drop' Abreudrop	36 - 42	-6	56.9	0.85

GODSENT	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Bruno 'latto' Rebelattolatto	51 - 46	+5	76.5	1.18
João 'felps' Vasconcellosfelps	47 - 54	-7	72.8	1.05
Eduardo 'dumau' Wolkmerdumau	48 - 47	+1	73.2	1.04
Bruno 'b4rtiN' Câmarab4rtiN	40 - 48	-8	67.1	0.98
Epitacio 'TACO' de MeloTACO	29 - 44	-15	54.9	0.75

So far, the only other team to have secured a spot at IEM Winter is TYLOO, who topped the Asia qualifier earlier on Monday. The first open qualifier for Europe will begin on October 9, awarding two spots in its closed qualifier.

Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo Age: 26 Team: GODSENT Rating 1.0: 0.93 Maps played: 1281 KPR: 0.61 DPR: 0.64 João 'felps' Vasconcellos Age: 24 Team: GODSENT Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 935 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.70 André 'drop' Abreu Age: 17 Team: FURIA Rating 1.0: 0.97 Maps played: 74 KPR: 0.64 DPR: 0.64 FURIA #20 Andrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosVinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoKaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoAndré 'drop' Abreu Yuri 'yuurih' Santos Age: 21 Team: FURIA Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 913 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.64 Andrei 'arT' Piovezan Age: 25 Team: FURIA Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 899 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.70 Extra Salt #29 Aran 'Sonic' GroesbeekEdgar 'MarKE' MaldonadoJohnny 'JT' TheodosiouJosh 'oSee' OhmJustin 'FaNg' Coakley TYLOO #97 YuLun 'Summer' CaiYuanZhang 'Attacker' ShengHaoWen 'somebody' XuKelun 'SLOWLY' SunZhenghao 'DANK1NG' Lv paiN #33 Vinicios 'PKL' CoelhoGabriel 'NEKIZ' SchenatoWesley 'hardzao' LopesRodrigo 'biguzera' BittencourtRafael 'saffee' Costa GODSENT #36 Epitacio 'TACO' de MeloJoão 'felps' VasconcellosEduardo 'dumau' WolkmerBruno 'b4rtiN' CâmaraBruno 'latto' Rebelatto