Local favourites 00 Nation and Imperial Esports were sadly the first two to pack their bags.
Day 2 of IEM Rio Major saw the sixteen teams in the Challengers stage split into three – the High group, the Middle group and the Low group – to see where they stand at the end of the day. Winners of the High group matches will be the first pair of teams heading into the Legends Stage. In contrast, the losers of the Low group match unfortunately will be the first pair of teams eliminated from this prestigious tournament.
In the High Group, MOUZ met Fnatic while Team GamerLegion’s matchup was Bad News Eagles. These two matches were played in Bo3, with each team looking to overcome their opponents to place themselves in the Legends Stage. MOUZ was the winner in the match with Fnatic; both teams played to their strengths in the three maps, but MOUZ showed more consistency as they overcame Fnatic in two out-of-the-three maps.
Bad News Eagles meanwhile trumped their opponent in a straight win, leaving Team GamerLegion behind in both maps comfortably. This led to their 2-0 win and their berth in the Legends Stage.
The Low group saw 00 Nation go against IHC Esports and Cloud9 go against Imperial Esports. These matches were also Bo3; the first match saw both teams fighting hard to keep themselves in the competition. While 00 Nation started strong, IHC came back from behind in maps two and three in overtime to emerge as the winning team. Cloud9 overcame another local team, Imperial Esports, in a straight win – but not without challenges. Both maps were played in overtime and by sheer determination, Cloud9 won against Imperial.
Unfortunately, local favourites 00 Nation and Imperial Esports are the first to leave the competition.
For the Mid group matches, all are still played as Bo1 and saw big-name teams failing to grab a win as Evil Geniuses, Team Vitality Grayhound Gaming and OG fall to their opponents. 9z, Outsiders, BIG and FURIA picked up a win each to keep themselves in the top half of the Challengers table.
Day 3 of IEM Rio will see twelve teams continue their journey in the Challengers Stage to see which teams will make it to the next stage of the competition, and which teams will be the ones leaving the last Major of 2022.
