Bad News Eagles soar into Legends Stage of IEM Rio Major

The Kosovars have mirrored their performance from PGL Antwerp by making the top-16 stage, this time in flawless fashion.

Bad News Eagles have booked a spot in the Legends Stage of the IEM Rio Major, easing past GamerLegion in a two-map series to complete a flawless 3-0 run through the first Swiss stage of the event.

The organization-less team came into the event all guns blazing, defeating 00NATION in dominant fashion before taking down BIG on Dust2 following a strong CT-side performance. It was much the same in their last game against GamerLegion, strong defensive halves allowing for relatively swift and easy wins on Ancient and Mirage.

It is the second time Bad News Eagles have made it to the Legends Stage, previously advancing from the Challengers Stage with a 3-2 record at PGL Major Antwerp only to go winless from then on. Flatron "⁠juanflatroo⁠" Halimi and company will hope to have a better showing this time around, and will have the confidence of going flawless through the first stage to play off of as they take aim at upsetting teams en route to the playoffs. GamerLegion, meanwhile, may be momentarily disappointed with the loss, but can console themselves with the fact they have two more chances to fight for a spot in the top-16 stage.

GamerLegion were the ones to take an early lead on Ancient, a pistol round and subsequent conversion putting them up at 2-0 before Bad News Eagles responded with two rounds of their own. Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek's men were swift to respond as they regained the lead with another set of three rounds, but were unable to completely stall out Rigon "⁠rigoN⁠" Gashi and Genc "⁠gxx-⁠" Kolgeci in the latter moments of the half, allowing the Eagles to mount a considerable offensive half and post seven rounds heading into the break.

Bad News Eagles assumed complete control once on the CT side, continuing their impressive display on the defense that they have showcased in the event thus far. Just one round was conceded by juanflatroo and company en route to a picture perfect finish, taking the win 16-9 to move the series to GamerLegion's pick of Mirage.

The Kosovar team's ability to mount a dominant defense continued on the second map, rigoN and Dionis "⁠sinnopsyy⁠" Budeci in particular stepping up with multi-kill rounds early on as Bad News Eagles fought their way up to a 7-1 lead. It seemed as if GamerLegion had finally found a winning formula as they won four rounds in a row to close the gap, but a quad kill from rigoN on a save round completely shut down that momentum, allowing BNE to close out the rest of the half for a 10-5 lead.

GamerLegion's efforts to pull off a comeback in the second half were short-lived, juanflatroo and sinnopsyy combining to keep their side in firm control. Just two rounds went the way of the European combine before multi-kills from rigoN and sinnopsyy took things over the line for their team, booking them a spot in the Legends Stage for the second time.