BIG stun Heroic to clinch playoffs spot in Rio

Just over two days after missing out on a place at the BLAST.tv Paris Major, BIG celebrate making it to the playoffs at IEM Rio.

BIG are the second team to qualify for the IEM Rio playoffs after topping their side of the Group A upper bracket with a 2-1 victory over HEROIC (Vertigo 14-16, Nuke 16-11, Overpass 16-6). The Germans now join Natus Vincere in the upper final to play for a direct berth to the semi-finals on Wednesday at 19:30 .

The triumph against Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller's team marks the first time this core of BIG beat HEROIC. The last time around at ESL Pro League Season 17 Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz and company lost in a narrow fashion, but this time secured the win from a map behind.

Even Vertigo could have gone the German team's way had it not been for a late fumble against Tec-9s that tilted the scales in favor of HEROIC, who then went into their own pick Nuke with high hopes.

BIG however put up a fantastic CT side on the second map and gave themselves enough breathing room to equalize the series despite HEROIC's efforts to come back into contention with a late charge on their own defense.

The series came down to Overpass, where BIG were in the driving seat from the start and consistently punished HEROIC's aggression with a superb 11-4 offense. From there, they closed out the match without any drama on the CT side after winning the pistol round.

"It feels amazing, finally we beat them," Nils "⁠k1to⁠" Gruhne said in an interview with James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks on the official ESL broadcast. "I checked the stats yesterday and we lost every single time against them, I think the last time we won was like two years ago. We're really happy now that we made playoffs."