What happened at the Major qualifiers - Day 1 debrief

5-10-2022 10:37

The Major qualifiers have officially got underway with the first day of the European Regional Major Ranking events. Here's what happened so far.

Only the European side of things has got underway when it comes to qualifiers for the IEM Rio Major. Boasting 32 teams and offering 16 coveted spots in Brazil, the two European Swiss stages kicked off on Tuesday, before the 16-team Americas one (six spots) follows later on Wednesday and the four-team Asian tournament (two spots) on Friday.

For now, you could say things went smoothly for most of the favorites. Teams like Natus Vincere, Vitality, Cloud9, and HEROIC passed the opening day with flying colors, and G2 looked in particularly hot form as they dealt ECSTATIC a 16-0 smackdown.

A frustrated Twistzz packing his gear, broky's got-away-with-it smile of relief, and RobbaN's facepalm — an apt depiction of FaZe's opening day

It was all but smooth for the biggest name on the list, however. Playing a highly competitive GamerLegion squad, FaZe had to sweat for their first win after they let the Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek-led team play their favorite map, Mirage. Defending against a total of seven match points and a red-hot Frederik "⁠acoR⁠" Gyldstrand, Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's team finally breathed a sigh of relief after an exhausting quadruple-overtime affair.

In a match full of question marks, the new Ninjas in Pyjamas squad recently bolstered by Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen and featuring a new AWPer in Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner took down the Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke-less Astralis. In another highlight matchup of the opening day, MOUZ took down OG on a surprisingly comfortable Vertigo.

The closest matches other than the FaZe marathon took place among the middle-of-the-pack teams. In the biggest comeback so far, Sprout overturned a 5-14 deficit against FORZE on the Terrorist side of Inferno to pick up their first win. Bad News Eagles denied Eternal Fire a comeback of their own on Dust2, nearly letting a 12-3 lead slip before closing it out 16-14.

Standings after day 1
IEM Road to Rio Europe RMR A standings
IEM Road to Rio Europe RMR B standings

Performance of the day

electroNic vs Illuminar

There was always just one candidate for the performance of day one at the Europe RMRs: Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov. Natus Vincere's in-game leader put up monstrous numbers across the board in their 16-5 victory on Dust2 against Illuminar:

Score: 41-9-10
Rating: 3.07
Impact rating: 4.30
First kills: 7
Utility damage per round: 25.2

Play of the day

The play of the first day also goes the way of the Russian star, who helped NAVI close out the Illuminar match swiftly with a quick 1v4 clutch in the second pistol round.

HLTV live coverage

HLTV.org has coverage teams over in Malta and Stockholm to bring you interviews from location, photos, and story updates on Instagram. Here are the interviews we conducted during the first day in Malta:

Dorian "⁠xertioN⁠" Berman: "There's certain situations I feel uncomfortable right now"
Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså: "We probably all expected more, sooner"
Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström: "I'm expecting a lot from jabbi, he's a huge talent"
Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen: "Coming into G2 I have to get used to being the big dog"

Day 2 set to start

Major qualifiers are now heading into day two, where the European RMRs will continue with the second round and Americas join the fray with the first two rounds of their Swiss stage.

Here are some highlight matchups of the action-packed second day: