The best stories and plays from day one of IEM Rio

18-4-2023 05:52

Catch up on the best storylines, our player of the day, and highlight moments from the first day of IEM Rio.

No Paris, no problem for BIG

BIG may have missed out on making the Major, but they wasted no time in bouncing back by qualifying for the Jenuesse Arena. The German side arrived in Brazil with a chip on their shoulder after losses to 9INE, Vitality, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and Cloud9 put them out of contention for the last CS:GO Major, and they had something to prove upon entering their opening match against MOUZ.

A 16-6 victory on Overpass over the European combine let BIG get a shot at making it to the playoffs of IEM Rio through the upper bracket, but HEROIC stood in their way. The Danish team had never lost to this core of BIG, holding a 6-0 matchup record and 10-2 map record over them, and entered the series as favorites to advance thanks in part to their continued display of consistency across recent tournaments. It ended up being the German team who surprised, however, recovering from a squandered Vertigo (14-16) by securing victories on Nuke (16-11) and Overpass (16-6) to book a ticket to the playoffs.

BIG bounced back from their RMR defeat by making it to the arena in Rio

The last time BIG made it to the bracket stage of a Big Event was at IEM Dallas 2022, almost one full year ago, where they had gone out in 3-4th place following a loss to eventual champions Cloud9. The German side can match that performance as they have the opportunity to advance directly to the semi-finals in Rio by beating Natus Vincere in the upper bracket final of Group A on Wednesday at 19:30

Note: time is subject to change.

MOUZ and Imperial first to be eliminated

Hometown favorites Imperial won't play in front of the Brazilian crowd (at least, not outside of the Showmatch) after suffering a last-place elimination following losses to Ninjas in Pyjamas and The MongolZ. Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo's men received a last-minute invite to compete in the event after Virtus.pro dropped out on short notice, but couldn't capitalize on their position and will have to root for FURIA or MIBR to advance in their stead.

MOUZ ended up as the shock exit of day one as they were sent down to the lower bracket at the start of the day by BIG, and couldn't recover in the ensuing best-of-three against 9INE. Dorian "⁠xertioN⁠" Berman, who had been a star for the European side in their Major-qualifying run, stumbled in the first match but showed signs of life in the second, but it was too little to late as the upstart Polish squad continued to showcase why they're on the rise with a 2-1 series victory to send Christopher "⁠dexter⁠" Nong and company packing.

hades and 9INE are aiming to qualify a Polish team for the last CS:GO Major

Vitality and fnatic drop to elimination games early

Two, top-15 squads in Vitality and fnatic were also put on notice on day one in Brazil — Vitality failed to convert 14-10 and 17-15 leads versus OG and were cast down to the lower bracket, while fnatic remained competitive against FURIA and forced overtime, only to get swept 4-0 in the extra set of rounds.

Both teams now have three best-of-three series separating them from a spot in the arena, with Vitality first going up against MIBR and fnatic facing 9z. Both matches are scheduled for Tuesday at 16:00 .

Date	Matches
IEM Rio 2023
17/04/2023	Ninjas in Pyjamas Finished 16:5 Imperial	Match
17/04/2023	The MongolZ Finished 9:16 Natus Vincere	Match
17/04/2023	BIG Finished 16:6 MOUZ	Match
17/04/2023	HEROIC Finished 16:12 9INE	Match
17/04/2023	Vitality Finished 17:19 OG	Match
17/04/2023	MIBR Finished 8:16 Cloud9	Match
17/04/2023	FaZe Finished 16:3 9z	Match
17/04/2023	FURIA Finished 19:15 fnatic	Match
17/04/2023	Imperial Finished 1:2 The MongolZ	Match
17/04/2023	Ninjas in Pyjamas Finished 0:2 Natus Vincere	Match
18/04/2023	BIG Finished 2:1 HEROIC	Match
18/04/2023	MOUZ Finished 1:2 9INE	Match

IEM Rio: Day one as it happened

Player of the day

Only Group A teams played more than one map on day one of the tournament, and Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov stood out above the rest with solid performances on all three maps Natus Vincere won on the way to an early qualification for the playoffs.

The in-game leader started the day with a team-leading performance against The MongolZ and added two more great maps to his tally in NAVI's close-fought win over Ninjas in Pyjamas for a spot in the playoffs.

Maps played: 3
Rating: 1.31
KPR: 0.89

ADR: 89.4
Impact: 1.65
Multikills: 20