FaZe Clan were by far considered the absolute favorites coming into the game against Gamer Legion in the Europe RMR A for the IEM CS GO Rio Major event. And while indeed they were able to take the victory this time around, it was not a walk in the park as everyone was expecting.
Captain Karrigan and his force used four overtimes to close the series with a 28-25 scoreline. Throughout the match, every FaZe player did step up to secure the win in the RMR as it definitely was a team effort to pull the win. Nevertheless, Gamer Legion showed incredible potential in their roster almos taking the victory against the European champions.
The match started with FaZe easily taking 10 rounds in the first half, setting up a big lead going into the T side of the map. GamerLegion, however, looked to come back by winning the second pistol and the next following rounds, ultimately being one round ahead of FaZe Clan with a 13-12 scoreline. Moments of individual prowess sent the match to overtime, which gave us a total of 23 extra rounds.
GamerLegion’s acoR and Keoz were the key for this performance, somehow pulling miracles via incredible aim and clutch plays. Thanks to their massive effort, the team achieved six rounds in overtime. Nevertheless, you can ever take FaZe Clan out of the equation. As they didn’t let their defense down and always managed to come back to even the rounds. In the fourth overtime, it looked like GamerLegion’s players were out of stamina, since after the big amount of rounds they started to miss easy shots and get caught in rotations.
Going into our second game, Ninjas in Pyjamas have moved to the 1-0 class of the IEM Rio Major Europe Regional Major Ranking (RMR) A’s stage after a 16-12 win over Astralis.
This was the first time that NiP fans watched their favorite squad battle since ESL Pro League season 16. The squad signed Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen to take the place off Nicolas “Plopski” Gonzalez and take over the in game leadership role that previously belonged to Hampus Poser, this roster move changed the communication from Swedish to English, and also moved rifle main Fredrik “REZ” Sterner to primary AWP.
It’s still unclear whether this change of lineup will be enough for NiP to earn a spot in the Major, but it was more than enough talent to beat Astralis. NiP had the game under control, having won the first half with a 10–15 scoreline. Astralis showed a resemblance of come back on NiP once they switched into the CT side, but NiP gathered together and listened to Aleksib’s calls ultimately winning 16-12
It was really important for NiP to start with a victory, especially against this revitalized version of Astralis, who is having to play with academy player Mikkel “MistR” Thomsen in place of Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke due to his fractured ankle.
The first day of the RMR will continue with the Europe RMR B matches as the Europe RMR A matches have finished.
