EG and Liquid secure IEM Rio Major spots

Liquid and Evil Geniuses progressed through the North America RMR with a flawless 3-0 record, booking their place at the Rio Major after beating 9z and Complexity, respectively.

After getting through the Swiss system, the two 3-0 teams will battle for the Legends Stage spot in the first-place place decider game, coming at 16:30 on Sunday. Four more spots in Rio are yet to be decided in the Americas RMR, which will go to the three 3-1 teams and the final to the 3-2 team who wins the sixth-place decider.

The series between Evil Geniuses and 9z started on Overpass, the pick of the North Americans. They started off their map choice with a pistol round win, but 9z fought back quickly by winning the first gun round. A triple-kill by Jadan “⁠HexT⁠” Postma got his team back to winning ways, and they made the most of the switch of momentum by racing up to a 10-1 lead, with HexT and Vincent “⁠Brehze⁠” Cayonte dominating the 9z defense. Evil Geniuses closed out the half with a dominant 13-2 scoreline, as they moved on to the CT side.

Timothy “⁠autimatic⁠” Ta secured the pistol round for the North American side, putting them up to map point in the process. They lost the immediate force buy and then spent a couple of rounds getting control of their economy, but closed out the map 16-5 without issues, moving the series on to Dust2.

The second map began with Evil Geniuses racing to the lead, only to once again lose the first gun round. This time, however, 9z were able to string more than one round together, going on a massive eight-round streak to dominate the first half, which ended 12-3 in their favor.

Evil Geniuses found themselves 15-5 down at the start of the second half, faced with a mammoth task of bringing the game back against 10 map points. They gave a good account of themselves, winning six in a row before 9z finally closed out the map, with Lucas “⁠nqz⁠” Soares getting a triple on the A site.

Mirage was the decider, where Evil Geniuses took early control of the game after their good start got them a 5-3 lead. 9z won a few rounds on the back of individual plays, such as a 2vs4 won by Franco “⁠dgt⁠” Garcia and Nicolás “⁠buda⁠” Kramer and David “⁠dav1deuS⁠” Tapia Maldonado‘s quad-kill on an eco round, but otherwise struggled to stop the T side, losing the first half 5-10.

9z started the comeback attempt early in the first half, coming within one round of their opponents at 12-11. Once there, it was rookie HexT who stepped up to the plate with two kills through smoke to turn the momentum of the game and get Evil Geniuses to series point, which the North Americans converted and secured a 16-13 win.

Complexity came out the gates swinging on Inferno, winning the pistol and converting it to a 3-0 lead. Jonathan “⁠EliGE⁠” Jablonowski stepped up in the first gun round with a triple-kill, with the scores quickly tied up at 3-3. Liquid continued to dominate, running away to a four-round lead before EliGE provided the highlight of the map, winning a 1vs3 clutch to keep their streak going. Complexity got just one round before halftime, going into the second half behind by seven.

Liquid started the second half with an aggressive play in the pistol, winning it and getting themselves to map point with a 15-4 scoreline. A late resurgence by Complexity got them slightly closer, but they weren’t able to stop Liquid from closing out the map with a 16-9 scoreline.

The first half of Overpass was a close-fought affair, with Håkon “⁠hallzerk⁠” Fjærli and Ricky “⁠floppy⁠” Kemery winning a 1vs2 each in the opening exchanges. Complexity kept the lead for a while before Liquid stabilized and retook the lead, eventually closing out the first half 8-7.

A second-half pistol put the EPL S16 finalists in a strong position, made even stronger by Josh “⁠oSee⁠” Ohm‘s 1vs3 clutch against an eco, which put Liquid 14-7 up. A simply breathtaking half by floppy followed, with the 22-year-old winning clutches, finding openings, and single-handedly stopping the offense with his star performances. He carried Complexity to a nine-round streak to close out the game 16-14, finishing the map on an incredible 38 kills.

The decider of Ancient started with Complexity racing to a 6-1 lead, no doubt riding the momentum of their incredible comeback on the previous map. Liquid didn’t give up, however, breaking their opponent’s economy to start clawing back at the advantage. Their seven-round streak got them back into the lead, with the scoreline standing at 8-7 in their favor.

Moving to the favored side of the map, Liquid put together a flawless display, winning all eight rounds in a row to close out the game 16-7. EliGE put his disappointing EPL final performance behind him, leading the way with a 1.41 rating in the series.