Who do these teams think they are? Finishing after 10pm on the Lord’s day of rest. Some of us have things to be up for on Monday morning.

Admittedly, not us. But you get the point.

In NAVI’s defence, they did get it done at a few minutes past 10pm, so we could get all cosy in bed not long after. This was a best of five to decide IEM Rio, but it was quite a quick one as they go, largely down to how badly NAVI clubbed MOUZ on Dust 2.

It started on Inferno, which was actually pretty tight, with NAVI winning it in round 24. Both teams had excellent T sides, but Aleksib called just one round better.

And then jL and iM decided to Eiffel Tower MOUZ on Dust 2. Don’t google that.

xertioN has a reputation as an inconsistent player, and MOUZ felt the downswing heavily on D2, with the Israeli dropping just two kills. It does happen, but in a grand final, it hurts.

Mirage was also one-sided, but this time it was MOUZ who coasted through. All eyes were on Jimpphat, and he stood up tall (albeit goofy as ever) and locked NAVI out. torzsi was pretty great too, and xertioN showed back up.

MOUZ were back in the final, and they took that momentum into Ancient. Jimpphat was frying, Brollan was immortal, and MOUZ were completely shutting it down on the CT side. They picked up ten rounds, and the grand final, in Rio, was back on.

Nuke was the last map, and it was an all-time classic. Some of the craziest rounds ever, ridiculous clutches, Aleksib and siuhy’s brains colliding like the scene where Harry Potter and the bald fella are casting spells… is what we would be saying, if MOUZ weren’t such massive bloody chokers.

They actually lost from 10-2 up.

w0nderful was hitting everything, and iM turned mid into his playground. We’re not calling MOUZ mid, we mean the part of the ma- you get it.

He ghosted through a smoke to turn a 4v5 into a 4v3 in a deciding round down the stretch, and you could feel the air being sucker punched out of MOUZ as he did it. It was a killer move - and the sort that excited us on GamerLegion back in the day.

siuhy must be gutted.

For Aleksib, though, he’s broken the curse of losing every IEM final, and NAVI are now inarguably the best team in the world. Shanghai is going to be a movie.

Final standings at IEM Rio 2024:

1st 🇪🇺 NAVI – $100.000
2nd 🇪🇺 MOUZ – $42.000
3-4th 🇧🇷 FURIA – $20.000
3-4th 🇪🇺 HEROIC – $20.000
5-6th 🇪🇺 Vitality – $10.000
5-6th 🇷🇺 Virtus.pro – $10.000
7-8th 🇪🇺 FaZe – $6.000
7-8th 🇲🇳 The MongolZ – $6.000