EU RMR B: Day one as it happened

EU RMR B: Day one as it happened

Time Stamp: April 11, 2023 4:14 PM

Group status
22:09 – NER0

We end the day with Monte and 9INE as the most successful underdogs. Three big teams find themselves in the 0-2 bracket, meanwhile: We will lose two of ENCE, Spirit and Astralis tomorrow.

Group Swiss

Stats: Best of day one
22:07 – NER0

1. Denmark Rasmus “⁠sjuush⁠” Beck: 1.68 rating 2.0
2. Jordan Mohammad “⁠BOROS⁠” Malhas: 1.54
3. Russia Ilya “⁠m0NESY⁠” Osipov: 1.48
4. Bosnia and Herzegovina Nikola “⁠NiKo⁠” Kovač: 1.38
5. Denmark Martin “⁠stavn⁠” Lund: 1.33

m0NESY: “I’m trying not to overthink”
22:03 – NER0

We caught up with m0NESY after a mixed day for G2.

“That first game was rough, something was off. We kind of played our game but something went wrong. We lost a lot of clutches, situations, 3v3, 5v3 and I think it factored on our game a bit. Our comms and our game was good but we just fucked up a lot of situations individually.”

“I’m trying not to overthink about opponent. I’m trying to always play as if it’s the same opponent. Sometimes [lower tier opponents] do crazy stuff and you should be ready for it and you should expect it. They’re trying to play their best game and we should play how we usually play.”

“There is no need to overthink, like we did at the last RMR. We overthought a lot, and that’s why I think we lost. It was the main reason, we kind of played not to lose. At this RMR we’ll do our best, and we will see.”

Eternal Fire cruise to victory over Astralis
21:56 – King Dempz

A pistol win and conversion put Eternal Fire firmly in control, and a relentlessly aggressive round from Buğra “⁠Calyx⁠” Arkın when guns came up for Astralis put the Turkish squad on the brink of victory. They duly got the job done, taking a comfortable 16-7 victory, and now Astralis will have to fight for their lives.

It was a bit of a non-standard win for Eternal Fire as Engin “⁠MAJ3R⁠” Küpeli topped the scoreboards with over 100 ADR whilst Ismailcan “⁠XANTARES⁠” Dörtkardeş struggled. If they can get wins when their star player has a quiet game, Eternal Fire will be a threat moving forward.

Astralis got very little production out of their star duo of Benjamin “⁠blameF⁠” Bremer and Nicolai “⁠device⁠” Reedtz in this match. There is no more room for error for the Danes, so they will need to hope their big fraggers step up.

Turkey
Denmark

huNter-: “It’s never easy to play against my friends”
21:44 – Professeur

Nemanja “⁠huNter-⁠” Kovač had word of reassurance for iNation after posting nearly 130 ADR against them: “It’s never easy to play against my friends and win against them, but I’m really happy for them, really happy that iNation is at the RMR. This was my first professional team, kind of, and I wish them all the best.”

Eternal Fire post convincing offensive half on Vertigo
21:36 – King Dempz

Astralis were spurred on by device’s B hold, picking up three more in a row off the back of it.

XANTARES took things into his own hands to ensure Eternal Fire took the half win, sprinting into B and grabbing a 3k alone to get the Turkish squad back on the board. This scuppered Astralis’ economy, but the Danes did manage to grab the final round despite only sporting pistols, resulting in a 6-9 half.

m0NESY domination for a resounding win
21:17 – Professeur

G2‘s AWPer gave no respect to iNation and was the best-performing player on the server with a 1.98 rating. In the final round, at 15-3, his aggressive play turned around a 3v5 in his team’s favor and ended the game early, seeing G2 move on to the 1-1 pool.

Eternal Fire dominating Astralis on Vertigo
21:22 – King Dempz

Calyx has started this game on fire and has helped drive his team’s Terrorist side to an early 7-2 lead over Astralis.

The Danes are really struggling to fight effectively at ramp, which is hamstringing their defense considerably. At least device just came up big with a B hold to stop the rot.

Watch: DEPRESHN 1v3
21:17 – Professeur

The young Croatian AWPer pulls off a big clutch to make the score 6-3 between G2 and iNation, keeping his team in it.

Unfortunately for the underdogs, they fumbled the following round against a low buy, their second such loss on Ancient, and things seem to be getting out of hand.

A word with Jerry
21:05 – NER0

“It feels really good to beat ENCE because Cloud9 [who beat FORZE earlier] were two steps ahead … Cloud9 could prepare for us but ENCE had no such preparation. They didn’t have much time.”

“If you have proper time you can prepare for two or three maps. Especially when you know it’s a best of one and there will be some kind of weakening to the good teams.”

We also asked Andrey “⁠Jerry⁠” Mekhryakov about the event’s seeding, a system that placed FORZE 15th: “I think it’s not ideal, but I don’t have a better solution … we have what we have.”

FORZE complete the comeback
20:48 – Professeur

A scrappy affair through and through, but FORZE make the most out of the favored offensive side to edge out ENCE 16-14. Marco “⁠Snappi⁠” Pfeiffer‘s men are now joining Spirit in the 0-2 pool, at the brink of elimination.

Look at the dejected faces of ENCE players after that performance:

500 send Spirit to 0-2 bracket
20:38 – King Dempz

Spirit completely crumbled after losing the half-buy and 500 took five on the bounce to secure the victory.

It seemed Spirit were lacking in variety on the T side, rarely operating with mid control and resorting to A executes more often than not. The Russians are now on the verge of elimination.

500 take one-round lead over Spirit as game reaches late stages
20:28 – King Dempz

500 started the half well, winning four of five largely thanks to several Aleks “⁠Rainwaker⁠” Petrov multi-kills. Spirit nearly shocked the Bulgarians with a full-eco win, Boris “⁠magixx⁠” Vorobiev making magic with a glock, but 500 pulled through.

This did however wreck the 500 economy, and Spirit won the following round, leaving the Bulgarians facing two rounds without a full buy. Georgi “⁠SHiPZ⁠” Grigorov cracked out his deagle in the second of those two rounds and stunned Spirit, giving his team a one-round lead.

Spirit take slim lead into their offensive half against 500
20:11 – King Dempz

500 went on a hot streak after losing the first two rounds, only for a Spirit half-buy win to bring the game back into the balance.

It was very much individual playmaking that won 500 their rounds, and with Spirit seemingly warmed up it happened less and less. Still Denislav “⁠dennyslaw⁠” Dimitrov pulled a 4k out of the bag in the final round, meaning Spirit only managed a slender 8-7 lead at the half.

This is still anyone’s game.

ENCE take control
20:09 – Professeur

From 4-4 to 10-5, ENCE recovered and assumed the lead as T on Anubis. The A defense seemed to be the problem for FORZE, allowing Alvaro “⁠SunPayus⁠” Garcia, Guy “⁠NertZ⁠” Iluz, and Paweł “⁠dycha⁠” Dycha to rack up 15+ kills each.

Spirit and 500 match close early doors
19:59 – King Dempz

Spirit won the pistol and followup round, but then 500 started to find their footing on their T half.

Ivan “⁠Patrick⁠” Ivanov has been effective finding entries for 500, whilst SHiPZ has been lurking to the extreme.

Just as it seemed 500 might run away with things, a half-buy came up trumps for Spirit. They now have a narrow 6-5 lead.

sdy after Monte go 2-0
19:54 – NER0

“We have zero toxicity in this team. Zero.”

Read more

sdy: “We told BOROS: ‘nafany plays con, you have two legs, go win'”

hades: “The fight we put up was unbelievable”
19:46 – NER0

We asked Olek “⁠hades⁠” Miskiewicz if he expected 9INE to be just this good at the RMR:

“No, not really. The fight we put up in both games was unbelievable. Online? Our mentality is much worse. Here, we fight for every round.”

“In pracs, in officials, we lose rounds which we can’t lose and then we win rounds which we shouldn’t win. So we just believe in every round.”

We also asked how he felt going into the best of threes: “We have a pretty strong map pool. We worked on it a lot recently, so it’s gonna be good.”

Watch: 9INE go 2-0 over BIG
19:41 – NER0

Watch: apEX comforts zonic after a stressful map
19:40 – NER0

9INE one win from Paris after defeating BIG in OT
19:27 – King Dempz

9INE produced a flawless first half of OT on CT, and this seemed to completely deflate BIG as they couldn’t pick up a defensive round of their own. The score ended 19-15.

9INE are now on the verge of qualifying for the BLAST Paris Major, and they got to this point by beating G2 and BIG. These RMRs have been absolutely wild so far.

Germany
Poland

Vitality go 2-0
19:22 – Professeur

The Frenchmen have joined Heroic and Monte in the group of teams just one win away from the BLAST.tv Paris Major.

They were in control throughout the second half with an inspired Lotan “⁠Spinx⁠” Giladi matching up Mathieu “⁠ZywOo⁠” Herbaut‘s output. Ninjas in Pyjamas did recover multiple man-down situations to make it interesting, but it was ultimately a 16-13 for Vitality.

Europe
Europe

9INE force overtime against BIG
19:17 – King Dempz

There was little to separate BIG and 9INE in this game, they continued to trade rounds as the half wore on.

It seemed BIG breaking 9INE‘s economy would win the Germans the game at the death, but the Poles came up trumps with pistols to force OT.

9INE tie things up against BIG
18:59 – King Dempz

Some clean USP headshots denied a BIG A execute and won 9INE their CT pistol.

The Poles converted the next, only to lose to a force-buy from BIG thanks to a clutch from Nils “⁠k1to⁠” Gruhne, who is performing very well in this map.

A couple rounds were traded but 9INE are starting to settle on their defence, with hades doing well to find openers and the whole squad retaking effectively. They just tied up the score at 11-11.

Anyone’s game between NIP and Vitality
18:51 – Professeur

The Frenchmen have a 9-6 lead, but are about to switch to the Terrorist side which was strugglesome against Astralis earlier on the same map. The pistol will be all-important to determine the direction of the match.

BIG take 9-6 lead into second half over 9INE
18:42 – King Dempz

9INE certainly posed some problems for BIG’s defense, at one point they attempted an ambitious double-fake, but BIG have been strong with their crossfires and head into the second half with a 9-6 lead.

Kamil “⁠KEi⁠” Pietkun was vital in cracking open rounds for 9INE, see the clip for an example of him creeping out A to grab a double entry. Their round wins really seemed to ultimately rely on plays like this.

ZywOo dominating NIP on Ramp
18:35 – Professeur

The French prodigy has been picking off his opponents from the top of Ramp consistenly, helping Vitality to a 6-3 start. Check out an example in the clip where it seems like he uses Dan “⁠apEX⁠” Madesclaire‘s spray to cover his scope sound. What do you think, was it planned?

BIG and 9INE neck and neck early on Mirage
18:29 – King Dempz

Johannes “⁠tabseN⁠” Wodarz led by example by clutching the pistol 1v2 to put BIG on the front foot on their CT half, but potent entry work from KEi on a force-buy stole a round for 9INE.

9INE took a clean third, but once BIG got guns up they were excellent at fighting for mid control and holding the bombsites with potent crossfires, giving them the advantage early in this match. 9INE have just nicked one back with a strong A execute, score is 5-4 in BIG‘s favour.

sjuush saves Heroic
18:23 – NER0

It wasn’t just in round 29 and 30 where sjuush saved Heroic — the anchor ended the map with 2.05 Impact and 34 frags.

Watch: BOROS as Monte go 2-0
18:21 – NER0

From praying, to clenching his fists, to celebration: Here’s BOROS as Monte secured victory over Cloud9

Watch: Heroic’s relief as they clinch their 16th
18:21 – NER0

TeSeS: “I’m very impressed by” Aurora
18:17 – NER0

We spoke with René “⁠TeSeS⁠” Madsen after Heroic were pushed to their limit by Aurora.

“It was really tough. They had some great rounds and they played really well so, I’m very impressed by them. We had a decent CT side and couldn’t really get the ball rolling on T, but cadiaN managed to find the solution and turn to plan B.”

“[Against tier two teams] you need to figure out how they’re playing in the match and kind of adapt to what they’re gonna do. They’re pretty good at switching up some stuff but they also have very set things that they always run because they have so many online matches. And, they can’t really change their strats because they don’t have time for that.

“So yeah, it’s much more in the game plan and the preparation where you can make out who’s in tier one.”

Monte upset Cloud9!
18:00 – Professeur

It seems like the six T rounds were not enough after all. Monte dismantled Cloud9‘s defenses to secure a 16-9 victory and are now just one match away from the Major.

“I’m so happy, we are so close to our dreams” – BOROS was jubilant in the post-match interview after posting a 1.72 rating against the world no. 5.

Russia
Ukraine

sjuush produces two immense rounds to secure victory for Heroic
17:58 – King Dempz

It looked like Aurora were destined to take an upset win over Heroic, but sjuush came up big when his team needed him to clinch a narrow 16-14 victory.

Aurora can be proud of pushing the Danes all the way, but ultimately the individual heroics dried up towards the end of the match.

Aurora tie up the game versus Heroic with individual clutches
17:38 – King Dempz

Aurora are right back in their game against Heroic, after things looked bleak with a 5-10 halftime score.

They won the pistol, converted the next couple cleanly, and then some individual heroics got them to parity. Vladislav “⁠lattykk⁠” Vydrin produced a wonderful 4k, ending in a 1v2 clutch, to really get Aurora going.

Clip: BOROS in disbelief from his own triple
17:32 – Striker

Watch the player camera after BOROS gets this triple on Cloud9. The Jordanian is now up on 26 kills.

Cloud9 limit the damage
17:26 – Striker

Cloud9 have limited the damage to end the half with six rounds to their name after all on the back of that Hobbit clutch. That could be just enough given that they have a 66% win rate on the CT side of Mirage in 2023 (an average of a 10-5 half).

Aurora trail 5-10 before halftime
17:25 – Rizzo

Viktor “⁠Lack1⁠” Boldyrev‘s men weren’t able to turn their fortunes around before switching sides, trailing ten rounds behind at the break. stavn was the star of the show as he continued to fire on all cylinders throughout the rest of Heroic‘s CT side and closed the half with a 19-9 K-D. The Russian squad had no response to the 21-year-old while also struggling to maintain composure in mid-round situations.

Ivan “⁠SELLTER⁠” Miroshnikov was one of the heroes from Aurora‘s first match against Spirit, but had a significantly slower half against the Danish team, sitting at the bottom of the scoreboard at halftime.

Clip: Hobbit’s 1v2 sends Monte on an eco
17:19 – Striker

Monte mount a great start as CT
17:10 – Striker

A pistol round win and a couple of key retakes on the A bombsite give Monte an early lead in the match. It’s 7-2 now on the CT side for the dark horses. Players with zero kills on both sides, interestingly — Vladislav “⁠nafany⁠” Gorshkov is yet to contribute and Volodymyr “⁠Woro2k⁠” Veletniuk hasn’t had to do much for his team, either.

Heroic bounce back after conceding pistol round
17:03 – Rizzo

Aurora claimed the first round of the match by overpowering Heroic‘s pistols on the A bombsite. The Danes quickly bounced back thanks to stavn‘s triple frag with the Deagle, which crippled the Russian push and allowed Heroic to claim the following rounds for a 5-1 lead.

nawrot: “It feels good to beat G2 on their best map”
16:57 – NER0

“We decided that if it’s best-of-one, why not take them down on Nuke?”

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nawrot: “It feels good to beat G2 on their best map”

Round 2 begins with C9 and Heroic up against the dark horses
16:46 – Striker

The second round is live and it’s two Mirages to kick us off. Two elite teams face off against the first round dark horses, with Cloud9 facing Monte and Heroic up against Aurora.

HooXi speaks out
16:09 – NER0

G2 denied all media after falling to 9INE, but Rasmus “⁠HooXi⁠” Nielsen has taken to Twitter to have his say:

Aleksib: “It feels like no one is believing in us”
16:04 – NER0

We found Aleksi “⁠Aleksib⁠” Virolainen after Ninjas in Pyjamas defeated Eternal Fire to go 1 and 0.

“We did what we were supposed to do. We were even anticipating that it can start slow. We were losing 5-1 but we didn’t give up and came back into the game and took it home on the T side.”

We also asked him about Ninjas in Pyjamas‘ form too, and if they now feel like underdogs: “It really feels like no one is believing in us. The predictions [made by BLAST’s casters on stream] were on the Eternal Fire side.”

“The way we’ve been playing, I don’t really mind them saying that but at the same time we’ve been working a lot and this is a really good start for us going into the next game of the day.”

9INE overcome G2
15:59 – NER0

After barely flinching when they got to 14 or match point, 9INE finally unleashed all of their emotions as they clinched victory.

Round 2 matches set
15:52 – Striker

9INE close out round 1 with a win over G2
15:48 – Striker

9INE close out the game with a few upper hits, taking advantage of G2‘s aggression towards lobby as they pull off the upset.

“We are fans of G2, we know what they do,” hades said in a post-match comment on the broadcast. “We watch G2 all the time and we take a lot of stuff from them, and we just added some of our stuff, and it somehow worked!”

G2 and 9INE go down to the wire
15:42 – Striker

9INE‘s surprise A main play catches G2 completely off-guard and we go to all 30 rounds.

Ninjas in Pyjamas seal a 16-11 victory on Mirage
15:34 – Rizzo

The European squad showed a new face after they swtiched to the T side and easily extended their lead after converting a second-round force buy. Eternal Fire‘s defense couldn’t cope with Kristian “⁠k0nfig⁠” Wienecke as the Dane was let off his leash against the Turks on the offense, recording a 14-5 K-D and 2.13 rating in the second half.

MAJ3R‘s men only claimed four defensive rounds before they were relegated to the 0-1 pool. No matter the result from the match between G2 and 9INE, Eternal Fire will face Astralis in the second round of play.

HooXi comes in with a critical 1v2
15:23 – Striker

That couldn’t have come at a more crucial moment. Up against the ropes with no money in the bank, G2 could have been in real trouble had it not been for HooXi‘s 1v2 clutch in round 19. Just one round separates them from 9INE now.

Upset alert, 9INE up 10-5 on G2
15:12 – Striker

hades is the standout player for 9INE so far, just like he has been ever since he has joined the squad at the beginning of the year. The former ENCE AWPer sits at four openings and 16 kills in total after the Poles won eight rounds in a row to close the half 10-5 up on the CT side of Nuke.

SELLTER: “It’s my first European LAN and things are amazing”
15:06 – Striker

The Regional Major Ranking events always bring new personalities to the forefront and give players from the lower-tier a chance to shine on the big stage. Aurora‘s SELLTER has been one of them and he has spoken to HLTV about his experience so far and the team’s win over Spirit in the opening round:

“It’s my first European LAN, and things are amazing. Even like when we were going to the media day the first time, it was something insane for me. Another level. So I’m just enjoying it, I’m not nervous because this is some important LAN, I’m just enjoying myself and the game.”

Read the full interview here.

Clip: k0nfig takes down five during B site defense
14:52 – Rizzo

k0nfig stood strong against Eternal Fire‘s offense on the B site, taking down three attackers with the M4A4 before securing the ace with two crips USP-S shots.

Eternal Fire take the early lead against NIP
14:52 – Rizzo

The Turkish squad has started off their campaign ay the RMR with a solid few offensive rounds against Ninjas in Pyjamas on Mirage to go 6-3 up. Aleksib and company have so far been unable to deal with a rampaging XANTARES, who currently sits with an 11-3 K-D

Vitality scrape past Astralis
14:47 – NER0

Final games of round 1 about to go live
14:32 – Striker

Just two matches are left in the first round of play in Copenhagen. The struggling Ninjas in Pyjamas take on Eternal Fire, while the Poles of 9INE look to start their quest to put their country back on the Major map with a David vs. Goliath matchup against G2.

Vitality edge it out 16-14
14:24 – Striker

Oh no. Lukas “⁠gla1ve⁠” Rossander couldn’t find the bomb inside the smoke and his teammates died around him in a 3v3 retake on A in the final round. Former teammates hug it out after the nail-biting game.

Vitality struggle to close it from 14-5
14:20 – Striker

Astralis mount an impressive comeback from nine rounds behind, but Vitality eventually found the answer with a late B bombsite split. At 15-13, though, the favorites ran out of time when they tried rotating over to the B bombsite from ramp with less than 15 seconds left.

Monte get the first upset of the RMR
14:17 – NER0

Monte take down ENCE 16-11 on Ancient
14:15 – Rizzo

Woro2k and company completed the upset against ENCE after claiming a 16-11 victory on Ancient to go 1-0 up in the Swiss group. Monte‘s individuals were on fire in their first best-of-one match as BOROS, sdy, and Szymon “⁠kRaSnaL⁠” Mrozek all took turns to mow down ENCE throughout the match.

Snappi‘s men celebrated very little in the first half and even their resurgence on the CT side led to nothing as they eventually folded to a Monte force buy on the A bombsite.

Vitality in control over Astralis
13:53 – Striker

From down 0-3, Vitality ended up with a 10-5 half on the CT side of Vertigo. Emil “⁠Magisk⁠” Reif leads the way, but everyone is pulling their own weight, while on the other side Andreas “⁠Xyp9x⁠” Højsleth and gla1ve are having a rough time.

ENCE are nowhere to be seen
13:50 – Rizzo

Monte are slamming ENCE out of the server on Ancient’s CT side. The Ukrainian core held out against the Europeans’ attacks time and time again as sdy and kRaSnaL shined, propelling them to a dominant 12-3 half.

G2’s socials with some fighting talk
13:41 – NER0

New meme format, or justified confidence?

Monte are up 6-1 against ENCE
13:31 – Striker

From a second-round forcebuy it’s all gone the way of Monte so far on Ancient, with the Ukrainian-majority team on the CT side up against ENCE.

Platitudes galore from gla1ve, apEX with a little more insight
13:23 – Striker

The next match is a big one between Vitality and Astralis and we heard on the official BLAST broadcast from both in-game leaders about the matchup, the RMR itself, and the pressure. Not a lot to grab onto from gla1ve‘s side, but apEX was a bit more sharing.

gla1ve: “We know that it’s a tough group and we’re starting out with a tough game, but we also know it can be a long group a lot of matches. We take it one round at a time and hopefully go 1-0, but if we don’t, let’s just keep it from there.”

“We just take a look at Vitality like we do with any other team. Don’t try to do too much or too little and do your own stuff. Just focus on what you’re doing, play your own game, and hopefully it will work.”

apEX: “The RMR is a bit different than other tournaments, teams want it so much to go to the Major, so I just feel like whoever you are, it doesn’t change it, it’s about how much you want it.”

“We need to close out close games because we’ve been struggling with that for quite some time, we’ve been losing quite a lot of close games, so we need to get better at that.”

Dragon: “I’m happy with how we managed the pressure”
13:22 – NER0

We spoke with iNation‘s Nikola “⁠Dragon⁠” Boskovic after a narrow defeat to BIG.

“It’s a tough loss, but I still feel confident. We just started bad, we had some unlucky situations. We didn’t win any pistol rounds, which affected the game a lot but I know we’re confident and I’m hopeful we’re going to bounce back.”

And when asked about iNation‘s expectations for the RMR: “The result we are hoping for is to go to Paris, to Major. It’s true that there are big names here but I’m very happy with how we managed the pressure in the first game. We’re just grateful to be here.

Clip: KENSI pops off as Aurora complete the comeback
13:19 – NER0

Aurora steal the victory as Spirit collapse
13:06 – Rizzo

Spirit had seemingly secured the win on Ancient after claiming the second pistol round and a 12-5 lead, however, once Aurora got their economy in shape they swept through their defensive half. Aleksandr “⁠KENSI⁠” Gurkin and SELLTER began to fire on all cylinders after switching to the CT side, locking the offense out of both bombsites.

Leonid “⁠chopper⁠” Vishnyakov and company were completely outfragged in the second half, and their inability to put the bomb down severely affected their economy. Aurora strung ten rounds in a row before closing the map with a 16-13 scoreline.

BIG come out on top after a comeback attempt
13:00 – Striker

BIG struggled to find the answer but finally made some information plays to be able to rotate in time for iNation‘s attacks. Marcel “⁠hyped⁠” Köhn helped get it over the finish line with a triple for match point, and the Germans closed it two rounds later at 16-12.

Seven in a row from iNation, eight from Aurora
12:53 – Striker

It’s starting to get scary for the favorites. BIG had a 14-4 lead, but iNation have kept finding openings on the T side of Anubis and exploiting weaknesses for seven in a row.

On the other match, Aurora are pushing Spirit and have taken a 13-12 lead on Ancient CT side on the back of KENSI and SELLTER‘s performances.

Spirit lead 10-5 at halftime
12:37 – Rizzo

Spirit go into the break with a 10-5 lead despite Aurora‘s heroics in the first half. Robert “⁠Patsi⁠” Isyanov was on fire throughout the defense and is switching sides with a 19-10 K-D, by far the best performer on the server.

BIG up 11-4 at halftime
12:31 – Striker

There was a moment where iNation had something going with fights around middle, but BIG have had everything under control for most of the half. Here’s a highlight from an anti-eco, where Josef “⁠faveN⁠” Baumann took down five and an extra one, just to be sure.

Clip: Lack1 1v3 clutch spoils s1ren’s ace
12:17 – Rizzo

Pavel “⁠s1ren⁠” Ogloblin opened up the round for Spirit with four frags in the A site defense and he would have gotten away with the ace if it wasn’t for that meddling Lack1. The 23-year-old Khazak pulled out a 1v3 clutch out of the hat to steal the round away from Spirit.

BIG-iNation and Spirit-Aurora next
12:01 – Striker

The next two games are starting between BIG and iNation and another Russian clash featuring Spirit and Aurora.

Ahead of their game, Ivan “⁠choiv7⁠” Zivkovic shared some former iNation members have shown their support to the Serbian squad as they head into their biggest tournament yet:

“Even NiKo, huNter gave us a lot of support, kassad, Janko, everyone is cheering for us. We had talks with them about how to prepare and so on.”

sjuush: “We knew where they were going”
11:59 – NER0

HLTV.org caught up with sjuush after the game for a quick comment:

“We had a little bit of a shaky start. We had good reads, we knew where they were going nearly all of the time. We were basically like 3 when they went to a site but we managed to do some mistakes which we’ll have to do better for the next time.

“[On CT side] we knew we did the right things. It was mostly about the setups, being a little more ping pong with each other, getting a kill or contact then surviving but we died instantly.”

“Obviously we then had a good T side and a P90 rush where i got a sniper with a P90.”

Heroic claim the win after solid offensive half
11:49 – Rizzo

Casper “⁠cadiaN⁠” Møller and company were not comfortable being so close to 500, so they decided to run away on the T side. The Danes identified the CT’s weakness on the A bombsite and repeatedly attacked it to extend their lead, only dropping one round on their way to a 16-8 victory.

The last round saw sjuush pull out a matchmaking classic and ran into the B site with a P90, taking down two on his way to the victory. I’d try to avoid pick-up games in the near future, thanks sjuush.

Cloud9 dominate FORZE once again
11:41 – Striker

Just a week after beating FORZE 16-7 on Inferno in the BetBoom Playlist Urbanistic final, Cloud9 go two better and pick up a 16-5 victory this time around. Great all-around performance from the favorites.

Clip: sh1ro mows down FORZE with Dualies
11:30 – Striker

Jerry said Dmitry “⁠sh1ro⁠” Sokolov is three steps ahead. He was a few meters above when he mowed down FORZE in the second pistol round to put Cloud9 ahead 12-4.

Alex “⁠Mauisnake⁠” Ellenberg, are you seeing this flash from nafany?

500 hang tight on Inferno
10:25 – Rizzo

Heroic have failed to shake the Bulgarians off their shoulders in the first half as 500 keep stealing rounds against the odds. The Danes’ poor economic management on the CT side has not helped them at all, a factor which allowed Nikolay “⁠niki1⁠” Pantaleev and company to keep up the fight and claim a 7-8 scoreline ahead of the break.

tabseN: “We prepared really well”
11:11 – NER0

We got a quick word with tabseN ahead of BIG against iNation at 12:15

“I’m feeling pretty confident for the first game [against iNation]. Obviously we cannot underestimate anyone here especially since we don’t have really good results in the past.”

“But we prepared really well, especially on the maps we are playing now, so we are looking forward to the game.”

The first matches are live
11:01 – Striker

Cloud9 are running away with the game against FORZE and go up 6-0. Meanwhile, forcebuy wars went the way of 500, but Heroic are retaking control after the close start (4-3).

HObbit confident despite Group A’s upsets
10:41 – NER0

Abay “⁠HObbit⁠” Khassenov gave a few quick comments on stream:

“I’m not worried about [having the same fate as FaZe]. It’s normal. You can win against everyone and lose against everyone.”

“We’re very confident to be honest. We’ve created some new stuff, we have a very experienced new player [in Timur “⁠buster⁠” Tulepov] who adapted very well.”

Jerry had more to say about FORZE‘s campaign at the RMR, its stacked nature, and the Cloud9 matchup:

“We didn’t know that we could be as high as we did in our EPL run, but it’s all about confidence, and now it’s about half confidence, half preparation. If we put it all together at this RMR event, that would give us the result we wanted. We were preparing hard for this.”

“We strugggled to do what we usually do in pracc against Cloud9. sh1ro is two or three steps ahead all the time, groove is the guy who is maybe five steps ahead. That BetBoom final gave us some information we could use in this matchup.”

“All RMRs I’ve been on are always weird. Each team wants to have legacy inside the game. You have an item in the game, a signature, that shows that you played [A Major]. I think that’s why this causes weird results at the RMR. RMR B will be even more unexpected, even more firepower here.”

Power ranking: EU RMR B
10:13 – NER0

The HLTV writers’ power ranking puts some big names out of the top eight; who do you think will miss out?

hades and 9INE aim to put Poland back on the map
09:56 – NER0

In that feature hades spoke frankly about Polish CS, and the need for the scene to rebuild with CS2 incoming. 9INE, though, still have a chance to make a name for themselves in CS:GO.

“The Polish scene has been in a very rough place since Virtus.pro fell apart”

Pre-match reading
09:45 – NER0

A small delay means there is time to go a bit deeper before the hectic RMR schedule kicks off. We’ve got three things you should know about each team, as well as a deep dive into hades and 9INE.

Read more

Europe RMR B in bullet points: Three things to know about each team

Read more

hades and 9INE are aiming to qualify a Polish team for the last CS:GO Major

Games delayed
09:35 – NER0

Some players are stuck in traffic, meaning the opening games have been pushed back from 10:00 to 10:45 so they have their mandatory one hour set-up time.

All the players have now arrived, so we should be getting underway at 10:45 as planned.

Spotlight: Cloud9 back on the grind
09:32 – NER0

After barely playing in 2022, averaging just 0.33 maps per day, Cloud9 have been playing at every chance they’ve had in 2023.

They’re up to 0.60 maps per day so far in 2023, and played 55 maps between February and March. It’s crucial playtime in officials for buster, and it paid off at ESL Pro League when Cloud9 earned a second place.

They’ll face FORZE in a tricky game to open their RMR campaign.

Good morning
09:19 – NER0

Welcome back to Copenhagen for the second part of the European RMR.

It’s a stacked group, with eleven top twenty teams present. The use of the Rio Major for seeding purposes will also be a challenge for teams like G2 (seeded 9th), Astralis (11th), and FORZE (15th) who failed to qualify last time round.

There’s eight spots on offer initially once again, but with FaZe waiting in the last chance bracket no team can afford to start slow.

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