FaZe get K.O’d

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Rio Rumble. We’ve got underdog stories, heartbreak, and titanic clashes, the likes of which have only been seen in… well, most other CS events. But this one is in Brazil.

We’ve done our best to summarize the group stage brawl, but there was so much we’ve had to miss out on a few games, so keep that in mind.

In group A, the hard-hitting NAVI refound its heavyweight status and hit all its opponents with a knockout punch. Their final opponent, BIG, was the underdog of this group. The scrawny Germans only just last week struggled to fight against opponents their own size, so coming into Rio, the odds weren't in their favor. Their opening win was a rough scrap against 9INE, fine, but the impressive part was when they qualified for playoffs by knocking Heroic down to the lower brackets.

Heroic still managed to go to the playoffs themselves from lower brackets despite having to sub for their coach Xizt in mid-map because Jabbi felt unwell. Xizt still had a higher rating than CadianN for the series, anyway.

Over in group B, the Brazilian Panthers at FURIA had to be the ones to fly their national flag high. Fellow countrymen, Imperial failed in Group A, leaving the stakes for ART’s men extra high. Still, they delivered with style. They had to take a few punches against fnatic, but their showing against FaZe made it all worth it. They hit the heavyweight champions of the world down a peg and secured spots in the arena with their adoring home crowd. Yet, it wasn’t perfect. That’s because Cloud9 had to rain on their parade in the seeding match. No longer having to save any strats for the major might have helped nafany overcome the massive hurdles of… MIBR and OG. huh, maybe he didn’t need the help.

Still, after the disappointment they had at the RMR, it’s good for them to make it to a playoff, even if they didn’t have the hardest path. Then, our final playoff contender: Vitality. Losing to OG in their first round didn’t bode well for the French-led, Danish-filled, and Israeli-starred fusion. But they got their fists up and got back to fighting. They managed to KO both MIBR and FaZe in 2-0 fashion before having a closer but still far away series with OG. Despite flameZ efforts.

The playoff games are:

‍Quarter-Finals:

‍#1 🇩🇰 Heroic Vs. 🇧🇷 Furia

#2 🇪🇺 Vitality Vs. 🇩🇪 BIG

‍

Semi-Finals:

#3 Winner #1 Vs. 🇺🇦 Na’Vi

#4 Winner #2 Vs. 🇷🇺 C9

‍

Grand-Final:#5 Winner #3 Vs. Winner #4