Gorilla Core to replace Rise Nation in WCA NA Finals

Gorilla Core will replace Rise Nation in the WCA North America Finals, the tournament's organisers have revealed.

In a Facebook post, LNEe cited "internal problems" as the reason for Rise Nation to skip the tournament, but HLTV.org understands that the Canadian team could not field their full roster simply because of personal reasons.

Gorilla Core, who had finished third-fourth in the first qualifier for the WCA North America Finals, will face CLG in the quarter-finals of this single-elimination tournament.

Rise National unable to play due to personal reasons

This will be the Brazilian team's second match with Filipe "⁠fp1⁠" Caires, who has been filling in for veteran Raphael "⁠cogu⁠" Camargo. It remains unclear why the 32-year-old veteran, who stepped in for Immortals in the group stage of ELEAGUE Premier, is currently not playing for the team. 

Running until Sunday, the WCA North America Finals will see eight teams - four invited and four qualified - duke it out for over $18,000 in prize money plus the chance to represent the region at the WCA World Finals, which will be held later this year from December 17-22 in Yinchuan, China.

Below you can find the quarter-final matchups for the tournament:

CLG	vs.	Gorilla Core
Misfits	vs.	Vault
Luminosity	vs.	Tempo Storm
Complexity	vs.	Gale Force

CLG #19 Pujan 'FNS' MehtaStephen 'reltuC' CutlerRicardo 'Rickeh' MulhollandKenneth 'koosta' SuenEthan 'Ethan' Arnold Gorilla Core #206 Luigi 'dukka' CastiglioneFilipe 'fp1' CairesAugusto 'gut0' BertoraRodrigo 'RCF' FigueiredoCharles 'pbf1' Teles Luminosity #21 Vinicios 'PKL' CoelhoGustavo 'SHOOWTiME' GonçalvesGabriel 'NEKIZ' SchenatoGustavo 'yel' KnittelMarcelo 'chelo' Cespedes Misfits #25 Sean 'seang@res' GaresShahzeb 'ShahZaM' KhanHunter 'SicK' MimsFrançois 'amanek' DelaunayDavid 'devoduvek' Dobrosavljevic Raphael 'cogu' Camargo Age: 32 Team: Gorilla Core Rating 1.0: 0.96 Maps played: 86 KPR: 0.65 DPR: 0.68 Complexity #44 Rory 'dephh' JacksonJaccob 'yay' WhiteakerPeter 'ptr' GurneyAlec 'Slemmy' WhiteBradley 'ANDROID' Fodor Vault #225 Juanes 'sickLy' ValenciaAndres 'spamzzy' CorreaSantiago 'Daveeys' GalvisCamilo 'points' LondoñoJesus 'sam_A' Taboada Gale Force #53 Guillermo 'guishorro' ArecoJonathan 'JonY BoY' MuñozMatias 'tutehen' CanaleEdgar 'MarKE' MaldonadoTomás 'tomi' Guardia Filipe 'fp1' Caires Age: 22 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 65 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.74 Rise Nation #40 Andy 'vSa' XuWill 'dazzLe' LoafmanJonathan 'Jonji' CareyKaleb 'moose' JayneBrandon 'Ace' Winn Tempo Storm #45 Paulo 'land1n' FelipeRicardo 's1' ShinjiDenis 'dzt' FischerAlef 'tatazin' PereiraBruno 'shz' Martinelli