IEM Rio 2023Heroic eliminate TheMongolz from IEM Rio after needing to substitute jabbi for Xizt
The Danes had to play with their coach after Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard was sidelined due to feeling unwell.
HEROIC have kept themselves in the running at IEM Rio after dispatching of The MongolZ in a three-map series (16-4 Inferno, 13-16 Overpass, 16-6 Mirage). It should have been a clear-cut series for the No. 3-ranked side after their dominant first map victory, but the match had a spanner thrown in the works after they were forced to substitute in Richard "Xizt" Landström for jabbi only a few rounds into Overpass.
The 19-year-old rifler chose to step out of the server due to feeling unwell, a situation that wasn't entirely a surprise to HEROIC as he had expressed feelings of being unwell in the first two days of the event and decided to try pushing on.
"We tried one practice with Xizt while we were here because jabbi was feeling sick just in case," Rasmus "sjuush" Beck revealed after the series. "We did try it and it was on Overpass, and we did well in the practice but we lost the official."
"I could see on his face," sjuush added regarding jabbi stepping out. "His skin was a little bit pale, and his knuckles [fist bumps] were not that strong, but I think it's strong of him to say no in the middle of a match because you can feel the pressure to keep on playing and just feel bad."
Xizt performed admirably in his first official in 2.5 years, even securing a handful of impactful multi-kills on Overpass. Alas, a missed timing from him in the late stages of the map allowed Sodbayar "Techno" Munkhbold to convert a lurk into a win for The MongolZ, but HEROIC didn't waver and dominated the Mirage decider to close out the series.
  The MongolZ |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 52 - 50 | +2 | 77.1 | 73.2% | 1.06 | |
| 48 - 56 | -8 | 80.3 | 60.6% | 0.89 | |
| 30 - 52 | -22 | 56.2 | 62.0% | 0.76 | |
| 35 - 56 | -21 | 59.0 | 56.3% | 0.73 | |
| 36 - 51 | -15 | 55.2 | 52.1% | 0.71 |
 HEROIC |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 67 - 41 | +26 | 99.3 | 84.5% | 1.52 | |
| 29 - 17 | +12 | 60.7 | 89.8% | 1.33 | |
| 53 - 41 | +12 | 83.8 | 74.6% | 1.22 | |
| 41 - 40 | +1 | 67.8 | 73.2% | 1.07 | |
| 28 - 24 | +4 | 57.5 | 78.4% | 1.04 | |
| 47 - 39 | +8 | 65.4 | 70.4% | 1.02 |
HEROIC will have to hope for a quick recovery from jabbi as they still have Ninjas in Pyjamas standing between them and a spot in the IEM Rio playoffs. The last time the two teams faced was at BLAST Premier Fall Final 2022, where the Danes emerged victorious after a three-map series.
| Date | Matches | |
|---|---|---|
| IEM Rio 2023 | ||
| 19/04/2023 |
19:30
|
Match |
Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen
Daniil 'headtr1ck' Valitov
nadeko_sengoku
Karbide
fallenbiggestfan
thesnackbandit
| 
FubarIno
| 
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nouser
4A616D596F756E67
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| 
kennySsSsS
eed123
SiTyGas
Hellp3r
syrson_goat
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weak_beta_male_unubold
| 
flipflop
| 
xaero^
| 
Pastorn
deBurrows
