IEM Rio Group A opening round over; MOUZ sent to lower bracket
The first round of best-of-ones at IEM Rio is over, with four teams now fighting for survival in the Group A lower bracket.
The first round of best-of-ones has played out in Rio de Janeiro, where IEM Rio is now underway, with all of the first round of Group A matches now concluded.
Ninjas in Pyjamas and Natus Vincere, the favorites in their opening matches against Imperial and The MongolZ, came out ahead in their openers, with 16-5 and 16-9 victories, respectively. Both of them came on Mirage.

The only upset of the opening round came in the BIG vs. MOUZ match, in which the German side made quick work of Dennis "sycrone" Nielsen's men. The veto ended up in an unexpected Overpass, which Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz and his teammates jumped on, securing it 16-6, to head into the Group A upper bracket semi-finals.
HEROIC, a team known for closing out when they are favorites, as shown in their 3-0 run at the BLAST.tv Paris Major RMR B, knocked out the aforementioned tournament's other 3-0 team, the Polish Cinderellas of 9INE, with a 16-12 showing on Ancient.
The Group B opening best-of-ones are up next, pitting Vitality vs. OG and MIBR vs. Cloud9 in the first grouping at 18:30 , followed by FURIA vs. fnatic and FaZe vs. 9z at 19:45 . After that, the Group A upper bracket semi-finals and first round of lower bracket will be played starting at 21:00 .
The detailed schedule for the rest of IEM Rio's first day of play can be seen below:
| Date | Matches | |
|---|---|---|
| IEM Rio 2023 | ||
| 17/04/2023 |
18:30
|
Match |
| 17/04/2023 |
18:30
|
Match |
| 17/04/2023 |
19:50
|
Match |
| 17/04/2023 |
20:10
|
Match |
| 17/04/2023 |
21:00
|
Match |
| 17/04/2023 |
21:45
|
Match |
| 18/04/2023 |
00:30
|
Match |
| 18/04/2023 |
00:45
|
Match |

IEM Rio 2023















Maximiliano 'max' Gonzalez
David 'dav1deuS' Tapia Maldonado
Santino 'try' Rigal
Gustavo 'tge' Motta





Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov

Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire
Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen
Lotan 'Spinx' Giladi
Adam 'NEOFRAG' Zouhar
Maciej 'F1KU' Miklas

Håvard 'rain' Nygaard
Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken
Robin 'ropz' Kool
Helvijs 'broky' Saukants
Robert 'RobbaN' Dahlström
Dion 'FASHR' Derksen
William 'mezii' Merriman
Christopher 'dexter' Nong
David 'frozen' Čerňanský
Ádám 'torzsi' Torzsás
Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen



