Aurora and magic secure spots at StarSeries Fall 2026

Aurora and magic have successfully secured their spots for the StarLadder StarSeries Fall 2026 event, progressing through the Europe closed qualifier. They will join established teams like Vitality and FURIA at the $500,000 LAN tournament scheduled for September.

magic had a remarkable run in the qualifiers, conquering both Walczaki and Gentle Mates twice and not losing a single map in the process. This impressive performance set the stage for a decisive qualification match against Ninjas in Pyjamas, where magic's Andrey "⁠AW⁠" Anisimov played a pivotal role. His contributions helped the Russian squad defeat NIP in straight maps, allowing magic to capitalize on their strong finish to the previous season, which included a top-four finish at PGL Astana and a runner-up position in Stake Ranked Episode 2.

On the other hand, Ninjas in Pyjamas faced disappointment on a day when they missed out on two potential LAN spots. Earlier, they suffered a defeat to paiN, eliminating them from contention for the BLAST Bounty Season 2 LAN finals, following their failure to qualify for StarSeries.

The newly restructured Aurora had a more challenging path to qualification, experiencing some bumps along the way, including map losses to K27 and Nemesis. Their qualification match against HOTU proved especially tough, as Aurora fought hard to overcome their opponents. After a close series that saw all 24 rounds on Cache, HOTU managed to take the first map but Aurora responded strongly to win the decider, thanks to standout performances from Ismailcan "⁠XANTARES⁠" Dörtkardeş, Ali "⁠Wicadia⁠" Haydar Yalçın, and Jimi "⁠Jimpphat⁠" Salo.

This victory marks a turnaround for Aurora after a disappointing debut loss to FOKUS in the earlier BLAST Bounty Season 2. With the European closed qualifier wrapped up, six out of the eight teams for the StarLadder StarSeries Fall are now confirmed, with the final two spots to be filled through upcoming North America and South America closed qualifiers from July 28 to August 2.