FURIA Esports, 9z Team and 00 Nation won their respective Round 4 High matches at the Intel Extreme Masters Road to Rio’s American Regional Major Ranking on Friday in Stockholm, securing berths in the IEM Rio Major.
FURIA swept paiN Gaming 2-0, 9z beat ATK by the same score and 00 Nation outlasted Complexity Gaming 2-1.
Also Friday, O Plano, Team oNe and MIBR lost the Round 4 Low matches and were eliminated from the competition.
The American RMR continues through Sunday in a Swiss system format. Elimination and advancement matches are best-of-three and all other matches are best-of-one.
The top six finishers in the 16-team event will advance to the $1.25 million IEM Rio Major 2022, which runs from Oct. 31-Nov. 13 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
FURIA defeated paiN 16-8 on Nuke and 16-13 on Vertigo in an all-Brazilian battle. Rafael “saffee” Costa led FURIA with 50 kills and a plus-19 kills-to-deaths differential.
9z routed ATK 16-2 on Inferno and 16-7 on Dust II. Franco “dgt” Garcia of Uruguay posted 45 kills on a whopping plus-35 K-D for 9z.
00 Nation opened their match with a 16-13 win on Inferno, but Complexity answered with a 16-10 victory on Overpass. 00 Nation broke the tie by winning 16-14 on Ancient. Santino “try” Rigal of Argentina carried 00 Nation with 71 kills and a plus-15.
In the Low matches, Nouns Esports defeated O Plano 2-1. O Plano started with a 19-16 win on Nuke but Nouns won the next map 22-20 on Inferno and clinched it with a 16-12 victory on Vertigo.
Imperial Esports took down Team oNe 2-1, winning 16-12 on Mirage, losing 19-16 on Inferno and battling back with a 16-11 win on Overpass.
Isurus eliminated MIBR, also 2-1. MIBR started with a 16-13 win on Overpass before Isurus rallied with a 16-14 squeaker on Nuke and a 16-12 triumph on Dust II.
The competition will continue Saturday, when three Round 5 matches will decide who advances to the sixth-place tiebreakers:
–Complexity vs. Isurus
–Imperial vs. Nouns
–paiN vs. ATK
American Regional Major Rankings event standings with won-loss record:
T1. Evil Geniuses, 3-0 — qualify for IEM Rio Major
T1. Team Liquid, 3-0 — qualify for IEM Rio Major
T3. 9z Team, 3-1 — qualify for IEM Rio Major
T3. 00 Nation, 3-1 — qualify for IEM Rio Major
T3. FURIA Esports, 3-1 — qualify for IEM Rio Major
T6. Complexity Gaming, 2-2
T6. Imperial Esports, 2-2
T6. paiN Gaming, 2-2
T6. Nouns Esports, 2-2
T6. ATK, 2-2
T6. Isurus, 2-2
T12. MIBR, 1-3 — eliminated
T12. O Plano, 1-3 — eliminated
T12. Team oNe eSports, 1-3 — eliminated
T15. Arctic Esports, 0-3 — eliminated
T15. Infinity, 0-3 — eliminated
–Field Level Media
