Spinx dismantles FaZe to put Vitality within reach of IEM Rio playoffs

Vitality will play one more series in the Group B lower bracket for a shot at making the next round in Rio.

The series between Vitality and FaZe was the day's spotlight match, pitting two of the best teams in the world in a do-or-die series for a spot in the final match of the IEM Rio Group B lower bracket.

The two teams were knocked down to the lower bracket early after traveling to Brazil straight from the BLAST.tv Paris Major Europe RMRs, where Vitality secured a spot at the Major's Legends Stage in Group B and FaZe prevailed through the last chance qualifier.

The series itself had only one main actor, Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi, with everyone else on the server a mere supporting cast for the Israeli's performance on both maps played. He thrashed FaZe on Anubis with 42 kills in 35 rounds, closing the 19-16 overtime with back-to-back quad-kills.

His 1.95 rating with a126.9 ADR was nearly matched on Overpass, where he ended up with 1.85 and 125.1 ADR, as he steered his team to victory by dropping 31 frags in just 25 frags as even one of the world's most in-form players of late, Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut, was overshadowed by the rifler.

FaZe will now head back to Europe where they will bootcamp for the first time this year ahead of the Paris Major's Challengers Stage, which they enter as the lowest seed due to their near elimination in the RMR.

This is not the first time FaZe have struggled for form, and a regrouping in time for the most important event of the year could work wonders for the international squad as they seek to find their best form ahead of their opening series in Paris on May 8 against Monte.

For Vitality, their Brazilian sojourn goes on. Up next will be a chance to get revenge on the team that knocked them down to the lower bracket in the opening day, OG.

Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire and his men shouldn't underestimate OG, however, as they will go into the series after a confidence boosting thrashing of fnatic in their lower bracket bout. The two sides will meet at 23:00 , the winner will move on to the quarter-finals and the loser will go home.

Date	Matches
IEM Rio 2023
19/04/2023	OG 23:00 Vitality	Match