AVANGAR and Sharks top groups in Rio, move on to semi-finals

AVANGAR beat INTZ 16-8 on Mirage to secure first place in Group A at DreamHack Open Rio, while Group B's winners' match saw Sharks defeat Valiance 16-12 on Train.

Group A's winner's match was played on Mirage, with AVANGAR getting off to the better start, leading 4-1 as Terrorists on the back of Bektiyar "⁠fitch⁠" Bahytov's triple in the pistol round and Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali's 1v3 clutch in the fourth.

INTZ fought back, reducing the deficit to just one round at 5-4 when Vito "⁠kNgV-⁠" Giuseppe's quad-kill overturned a 2v4 situation, but the Kazakh side answered with three in a row to ensure a won half, switching over to the offense at 10-5 in the end.

Although INTZ grabbed the second pistol round thanks to Gustavo "⁠yel⁠" Knittel's four kills in a 5v5 afterplant scenario on A, AVANGAR had little issues reaching match point, as they went on a five-round streak once they bought up full weaponry.

The match was over just two rounds later, with AVANGAR coming out on top of a close 2v2 retake on A for a 16-8 victory, clinching a spot in the semi-finals from first place in their group.

In Group B, Valiance kicked off Train with a pistol round win on the defense, but after a short back-and-forth in the gunrounds, the half began to slip away from them. Sharks came out on top of three crucial afterplants to claim a 5-4 lead and from there on, they were in the driving seat.

Before the half ended, the Brazilian squad claimed five more rounds with relative ease, putting Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač's team on the back foot with a comfortable 10-5 halftime scoreline before going over to the CT side.

In the second half, the two teams went back and forth early on, which played into the hands of Sharks, who had already been ahead by five rounds and soon looked to be on their way to a swift victory at 14-7.

It still proved quite difficult to finish off Valiance, who lost a total of five players over the next five rounds as they began mounting a comeback, but it wasn't enough, after all. Rodrigo "⁠RCF⁠" Figueiredo's triple with an AWP secured match point for his team and a retake on B followed, with Sharks picking up a 16-12 win en route to the playoffs.