fnatic advance to IEM Rio Major playoffs after beating BIG

The three-time Major winning organization return to the top-eight stage for the first time since ELEAGUE Boston 2018.

fnatic have claimed victory over BIG in the 2-1 pool of the IEM Rio Major Legends Stage, defeating the German team in a two-map series to earn a spot in the Jeunesse Arena, their first Major playoff appearance since ELEAGUE Boston 2018.

The international composition continued to demonstrate their prowess on Overpass early on in the series, punishing BIG for leaving the map in the pool despite the German side making the scoreline extremely close in the end. Momentum carried into the second map of the series, Mirage, and fnatic were swift in securing victory to successfully convert their return to a Major into a spot in the bracket stage.

BIG have one final chance to secure a playoff berth of their own in the 2-2 pool, a do-or-die match and the team's last life after they squandered two chances to qualify already, falling first to FURIA and now fnatic.

A triple kill and 1vs1 clutch from Elias "⁠s1n⁠" Stein allowed BIG to get off on the right foot on Overpass, and a subsequent conversion against fnatic's eco added to that tally for a 2-0 lead. The German team didn't run away with the lead as the first gun round went the way of fnatic, and though a response came through in the ensuing round from BIG, the momentum ended up going in the favor of William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman's men as they pushed up to a 6-3 lead off the back of a handful of multi-kills from Nico "⁠nicoodoz⁠" Tamjidi. s1n and Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz helped their team keep the scoreline close in the dying moments of the half, contributing to two round wins, but constant prodding and key entries from fnatic allowed them to lead 9-6 heading into the side swap.

A quad kill from Dion "⁠FASHR⁠" Derksen wasn't enough to give fnatic a round win in the second pistol round, and BIG started to gain steam after winning out in a handful of late-round situations, evening the score at 10-10. mezii and company began to hit their stride once their economy stabilized and guns came out through, aggression throughout connector and bathrooms combining with stellar multi-fragging from FASHR to get them match point. It seemed like BIG could force overtime and deny fnatic a regulation victory as the gap began to close, Florian "⁠syrsoN⁠" Rische in particular recovering a pair of rounds, but fnatic cut the brief comeback effort short just shy of extra rounds by edging out the win, 16-14.

fnatic's Swedish veteran stepped up massively to keep the team in the lead for most of Mirage, four early rounds from BIG offering little solace as Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson laid waste to the German team's attempts to attack bombsites round after round. The first half was relatively lopsided despite BIG's early start, fnatic consistently shutting down BIG's methodical attempts to gain map control en route to a 10-5 lead at halftime.

BIG seemed set to begin a CT-side comeback effort in the second half as they came out on top of early trades in the pistol round, but nicoodoz clutched a last-second 1vs2 situation to keep his team in control. From there, BIG had almost no opportunity to get back into the map, nearly managing two eco round wins only to falter at the final hurdle as fnatic closed things out, 16-7.