Over the pond, the American RMR was expected to be a formality for Liquid and FURIA.
And that was the case — for one of them. Liquid marched past TeamOne, needed overtime to beat MIBR, and then dispatched of Complexity in the 2-0 match to qualify for Rio.
Hometown hopefuls FURIA, though, encountered an unlikely but lethal wrench in the works: Evil Geniuses. The once controversial move of -maleK +maleK, and adding the unproven HexT and nealaN is actually paying off.
Who knew, having players with hunger — even no-names — is more likely to pay off than housing a Cloud9 retirement home?
EG didn’t just upset FURIA, they also joined Liquid as the other team to go 3-0 and qualify for Rio. Now, we’re not saying they’re gonna be good in Rio. But, getting a sticker is far better than they’ve looked like doing for.. well, a good few years now.
Speaking of retirement homes, Imperial are back, with fnx as coach, for yet another last dance. Who’s keeping count?
Sadly, it looks like lightning isn’t going to strike twice for FalleN and the boys. Losses to 9z and TACO and coldzera’s 00NATION leave Imperial with a 1-2 record, one away from elimination.
Except, of course, calling 00NATION “TACO and coldzera’s team” is a bit of a misnomer. That team is all dumau. He’s got a 1.47 rating after three maps of the RMR, which is starting to seem like business as usual for Brazil’s newest superstar.
With the Major taking place there, it’s only right that Brazil gets some good representation. FURIA don’t look like they can do that at the moment, while Imperial definitely can’t.
A lot of hope, then, is falling on dumau to carry the nation on his back. But even 00NATION look far from unbeatable, having lost in overtime to 9z in their opener.
ESL, of course, thought ahead: both group stages in Rio will be played in front of a crowd, so the region’s teams being fairly mid doesn’t really matter. We’ll still get that um... “passionate” home crowd.
But it would be nice if they weren’t mid, wouldn’t it? So let’s put on our 00NATION airpods and pray to Deus for dumau to become the superstar the region needs after FURIA went stale and Imperial’s cyronics project went awry.
Qualified for the Major:
Eliminated from the Major:
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