NIP take down BNE, Cloud9 edge out G2 at Europe RMR

The Swedes and Russians are now one best-of-three away from securing a place at the Major in Brazil.

Ninjas in Pyjamas advanced to the 2-0 pool of the IEM Road to Rio Europe RMR with a comfortable 16-7 victory over Bad News Eagles. Hampus "⁠hampus⁠" Poser continues to look comfortable in his new-found role away from the captaincy, the 23-year-old boasting a 21-15 K-D and a 1.29 rating throughout the map.

Similarly, in what was arguably the biggest matchup of the RMR so far, the No. 6 ranked Cloud9 reigned supreme 16-13 against the No. 5 ranked G2 after a laborious map. Sergey "⁠Ax1Le⁠" Rykhtorov was by far Cloud9's highest-rated player, leading the scoreboard with 26 frags, seven more than his closest peer in Timofey "⁠interz⁠" Yakushin (19).

With these losses, Bad News Eagles and G2 now fall down to the 1-1 pool of the RMR, with their next matchups of the Major-qualifying event set to get started on Thursday.

Ninjas in Pyjamas and Bad News Eagles paid a visit to Vertigo for their matchup, with the map immediately being a hard-fought skirmish to start as the Swedes led by just one round, 5-4. The hard-fought nature on display showed no signs of going away as the half carried on, with Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen and company only being able to muster an 8-7 lead by the end of their CT-side.

Ninjas in Pyjamas got off to a flying start once on the T-side, adding four rounds on the trot to consolidate their hold on the map and reach 12-7. By this point, Ninjas in Pyjamas had thoroughly taken full control of both the map and the economy, adding a further four rounds in quick succession to complete the flawless T-side and win the map 16-7.

Cloud9 and G2 got their action underway on Mirage, with Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen's troops looking to build on their 16-0 hammering of ECSTATIC on the opening day. The two teams were neck and neck to start things off, despite this, with Cloud9 barely sitting in the lead at 5-3 midway through their offensive effort. The Russian-majority roster's slender lead remained firmly in place as the half reached its end, with Vladislav "⁠nafany⁠" Gorshkov and company's solid T-side showing being enough to gift Cloud9 a three-round buffer by the side swap.

G2 looked far more composed at the onset of the second half, adding a four-round spree to their tally to take the lead, 10-9. Both sides continued to be near-inseparable as the game reached its dying stages, the two rosters exchanging a flurry of rounds back-and-forth to sit with 13 rounds apiece. When all was said and done, however, Cloud9 managed to pull ahead, adding the final three rounds they needed to clinch Mirage 16-13 and move to the 2-0 pool of the RMR.