Black Magic in Rio

We’ve had a magical start to the legends stage.

After beginning the challenger stage 0-2, Cloud 9 have gone five games without losing. And FURIA, probably powered by the roars of thousands of Brazilians, have also pushed flawlessly through the Legends stage.

Cloud9 started their run by going full Regigigas slow start against ex-major hopefuls FaZe (yep ex, more on that later). Despite winning first half 11-4, FaZe angered Zonic’s law, leading to Cloud9 winning the map 16-14. For the second match the NA org got to play the other winners from the last Major in NAVI. And somehow they also won that game 16-14. RyanAtDust2 must be doing some voodoo magic.

For their final game, the draw had them face Heroic. Another team who had looked impressive so far. But the Danes blinked first, dropping both Vertigo and Inferno 9-16. This means Cloud9 are in the quarterfinals, and that’s with only two score-lines across four maps. We’re still convinced black magic was involved.

The only spell cast on FURIA though was the enchanting passion of Brazilian fans.

The crowd was mesmerising every time the Brazilians took to the stage to work their magic. We hope there’s ear protection being worn by fans to protect them from their own noise. At this rate, they’ll certainly need it once the playoffs begin.

FURIA started their run against ENCE and they didn’t give them a chance to prove anything. arT pushed them straight off the edges of Vertigo, setting up the home team for a game with last-years playoffs surprise package, Spirit.

We here at tl;dr are on record as being big fans of chopper. But unfortunately, Zonic’s law keeps happening this major. Despite an 11-4 first half from the CIS team, FURIA won 12 CT rounds to win the map anyway. Is there a chopper thumbs-down?

Finally, FURIA played BIG. A rematch of their first game this event in the Challenger stage. There, BIG gave FURIA their first and only loss so far of the event.

So this was personal. And FURIA played like it.

There was no doubt at any point that the series was gonna go any other way than the BR way. And so it was, ending in a clean 2-0 and guaranteeing more BR CS Fan magic in the playoffs.