Vitality send FaZe to elimination pool; Cloud9 come back versus NAVI

Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire's side crushed the reigning Major champions in a one-sided match.

Vitality have recovered from their triple overtime loss to Natus Vincere on the opening day of the IEM Rio Major Legends Stage by dispatching of FaZe 16-6 on Inferno, putting the PGL Major Antwerp victors on the brink of elimination just one day into their title-defending campaign.

FaZe now have to claw their way back through the Swiss stage solely through best-of-three series, while Vitality have given themselves an extra lease on life heading into the 1-1 matches on day two.

Meanwhile, Cloud9 completed a CT-side comeback against Natus Vincere on the B stream, doubling down after pulling off a similar feat in their match against FaZe at the start of the day. Vladislav "⁠nafany⁠" Gorshkov's men recovered from a 7-13 deficit and gave up just one round from that point en route to victory, putting themselves just one match from qualifying for the playoffs — a substantially better start to this Swiss stage than they got off to in the previous round.

The entirety of Vitality were present on the server from the onset of the match, every player netting a kill to grab their side the first pistol round. It didn't take long for Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut to take control though, and the French superstar quickly became the driving force in a one-sided half for his team. FaZe managed just three rounds early on before Vitality ran away with things, coasting to a 12-3 lead at the end of their attacking effort.

The side swap offered FaZe little respite and even fewer avenues to get back into the map, a pistol round and subsequent conversion putting Vitality just two rounds shy of securing victory. Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen and company managed to double their score before their fate was sealed away, Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif and Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi closing things out with double kills to earn their side a well-deserved victory.

Natus Vincere got off to a flawless start in their Mirage match versus Cloud9, clean sweeping the pistol round and ensuing anti-eco to garner some early money. Entry kills from Sergey "⁠Ax1Le⁠" Rykhtorov and nafany allowed Cloud9 to respond and prevent too large of an early deficit, four rounds going their way before Natus Vincere swiftly put up four of their own to regain the lead. Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov and Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy in particular caused Cloud9 a lot of trouble in the latter portion of the half, often securing key double kills to close rounds in NAVI's favor to help edge out an 8-7 lead heading into the side swap.

Two opening kills put Cloud9 in pole position to take the second pistol round and tie the score, but Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev and Perfecto combined to recover the 3vs5 situation and keep the momentum in NAVI's favor. From there, Natus Vincere extended their lead by four rounds, 13-7, only for a half-buy from Cloud9 to finally put a halt to the streak, courtesy of a quad kill from Ax1Le. From there, Cloud9 showcased a masterful CT-side, conceding just one round from that point forward and crushing Natus Vincere out of the server en route to a 16-14 finish.