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.

MOUZ were knocked down to the lower bracket

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	Vitality 18:30 OG	Match
17/04/2023	MIBR 18:30 Cloud9	Match
17/04/2023	FaZe 19:50 9z	Match
17/04/2023	FURIA 20:10 fnatic	Match
17/04/2023	Imperial 21:00 The MongolZ	Match
17/04/2023	Ninjas in Pyjamas 21:45 Natus Vincere	Match
18/04/2023	BIG 00:30 HEROIC	Match
18/04/2023	MOUZ 00:45 9INE	Match