Live updates from Europe RMR A day 4

Eternal Fire 9-1 BetBoom

Facing a split attack from the B Apartments and Middle, Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker is able to position himself nicely to get four kills to shut down BetBoom's offense, forcing the Russians onto pistols for the next round.

Eternal Fire 7-1 BetBoom

One would be forgiven for thinking that Mirage was Eternal Fire's pick in this BO3, considering the Turkish side's dominant start. In reality, BetBoom picked out this map, and after eight rounds of play have only laid claim to a single round on their T side.

Eternal Fire 5-0 BetBoom

We're off to the races with the last game of Europe RMR A! Eternal Fire and BetBoom are now tussling for the final spot up for grabs available from this event, with the loser slated to head to the last chance qualifier for one more opportunity.

Things are kicking off on BetBoom's pick of Mirage, where Eternal Fire have carved out an early lead thanks to a hot start from Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker. Will he keep it up for the rest of the all-important match?

SAW 12-4 fnatic

fnatic didn't even have to.

SAW 12-1 fnatic

Never mind!

I wonder what the fnatic comms are like right now. Do they just go with the classic "round by round" platitudes?

SAW 12-0 fnatic

SAW 10-0 fnatic

Cue the "Stop, he's already dead" clip, fnatic are getting humiliated. João "⁠story⁠" Vieira picks up another triple as he goes hunting.

SAW 8-0 fnatic

This is a superb display from the Portuguese team. fnatic finally had a sliver of a chance in the last couple of rounds, but they have not converted on those opportunities.

Oh, and Ricardo "⁠roman⁠" Oliveira has yet to die after eight rounds.

SAW 4-0 fnatic

João "⁠story⁠" Vieira was a menace on Vertigo and he's been a thorn in fnatic's side to start Overpass as well. The AWPer is 8-1 four rounds in.

SAW 3-0 fnatic

The Portuguese team have had immense success in pistol rounds in the past three series, and that continues on Overpass. They've won either the pistol or the second round 10 out of the last 11 times.

SAW go unanswered on the CT side to cap off a dominant win over fnatic on the opener. João "⁠story⁠" Vieira tops the charts with a staggering 23 kills, 138 ADR, and eight multi-kills.

Overpass is up next.

SAW 9-5 fnatic

It's SAW's star man to come up huge at a crucial time, with a clean quad-kill to secure the second pistol.

SAW 7-5 fnatic

A solid T half for the Portuguese side, with João "⁠story⁠" Vieira in stellar form.

SAW's AWPer looked to be en route to an incredible 1vs4 in the 12th round but Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson stayed cool in the 1vs1 for a crucial swing round. Just two rounds in it.

SAW 2-2 fnatic

Winner to the Major, loser to the last chance qualifier.

ex-SAW Tiago "⁠JUST⁠" Moura and Renato "⁠stadodo⁠" Gonçalves made it to Copenhagen, but can their old side join them?

AMKAL 8-8 9 Pandas

It's all tied up after 9 Pandas secure the pistol and the second gunround. That was a hell of a journey of a round — AMKAL nearly turned a 2v4, but Aleksandr "⁠glowiing⁠" Matsievich was there to salvage it.

AMKAL 7-5 9 Pandas

9 Pandas finish Nuke's CT side with just five rounds despite winning the pistol, after AMKAL did not let them string rounds together. Aleksei "⁠NickelBack⁠" Trofimov's team are in pole position, but there's still work to do.

AMKAL 4-4 9 Pandas

It's all even after the first few gunrounds on Nuke. 9 Pandas had Denis "⁠seized⁠" Kostin to thank for the pistol and their first gunround win on round five, but on the other side Aleksandr "⁠TRAVIS⁠" Timkiv ran rampant as neither team can establish control.

A double timeout from AMKAL stopped the rot as they took advantage of 9 Pandas' passive stance and forced their way through the A bombsite.

Nuke to decide who goes through to the Major.

9 Pandas 10-12 AMKAL

AMKAL got up to match point off of their streak, but 9 Pandas have since strung three together with Denis "⁠seized⁠" Kostin and Artem "⁠iDISBALANCE⁠" Egorov doing the heavy lifting.

9 Pandas 7-11 AMKAL

AMKAL's offense is coming alive off the back of Igor "⁠Forester⁠" Bezotecheskiy's openings and this Vladislav "⁠Krad⁠" Kravchenko quad-kill:

9 Pandas 5-8 AMKAL

AMKAL got up to eight in the second half despite the 0-2 start, always having the players where they needed them as 9 Pandas' slow approaches did not work out.

But with a pistol round going their way and Daniil "⁠d1Ledez⁠" Kustov and Aleksandr "⁠glowiing⁠" Matsievich combining for five kills, the game is still on.

9 Pandas 3-6 AMKAL

AMKAL are controlling the second half now with just one gunround lost.

9 Pandas 2-2 AMKAL

The Pandas kicked off Overpass with a pistol round win but couldn't quite win the second round cleanly up against a sharp Vladislav "⁠Krad⁠" Kravchenko USP, so their economy was destroyed after they lost the first gunround.

AMKAL 6-13 9 Pandas

AMKAL will be kicking themselves for giving up the 6-3 lead in the first half and losing some harrowing rounds in the second. The scoreline could have easily gone the other way.

Here's the 9 Pandas comeback in key rounds:

6-3 | AMKAL run head-first into a halfbuy stack in brackets
6-6 | 9 Pandas convert 2v4 pistol after Krad's questionable smoke push
6-10 | iDISBALANCE turns a 2v4 with a quick AWP triple
6-11 | glowiing wins a 1v3 after a Molotov misses the mark

AMKAL 6-11 9 Pandas

9 Pandas are getting away with murder. Two 2v4s and a 1v3 converted in the last five rounds.

AMKAL 6-10 9 Pandas

AMKAL 6-8 9 Pandas

9 Pandas continue the streak in the second half off of a questionable move from AMKAL in the 4v2 retake on B.

AMKAL 6-6 9 Pandas

After giving away the 2v1 to ICY, the Pandas decimated AMKAL in three consecutive rounds off of a halfbuy win with just some pistols and SMGs.

Just one kill went the way of AMKAL in the final three rounds of the half and it's all even going into the second.

AMKAL 5-3 9 Pandas

What a back-and-forth couple of rounds. Denis "⁠seized⁠" Kostin's auto-shotgun triple gives way to a near-throw and last-millisecond defuse, before Kaisar "⁠ICY⁠" Faiznurov returns the favor with some great positioning allowing him to win a 1v2 clutch.

Times have certainly changed since Chad "⁠SPUNJ⁠" Burchill's playing days (his last Major was at ESL One Cologne 2015). Individual player stickers alone made the BLAST.tv Paris Major players in the area of $200,000 to $250,000.

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Sources: Paris Major sticker earnings exceeded $110 million

AMKAL 2-0 9 Pandas

Vladislav "⁠Krad⁠" Kravchenko's triple in a post-plant won his team the pistol and they're off to the better start on the Terrorist side.

Inferno is their pick, Overpass will follow, and Nuke was left to decide, if needed. Bookies had this game pretty close and the same goes for you — 54% of you voted for AMKAL to win. That's on a knife's edge.

That does not sound like an achievement to me, but it does put things into perspective.

Here are a few storylines for the first match between 9 Pandas and AMKAL.

— Denis "⁠seized⁠" Kostin looks to return to the Major stage for the first time since ELEAGUE Major 2018. He attended the first 12 CS:GO Majors, while everyone else on the server combined attended 6.

— Igor "⁠Forester⁠" Bezotecheskiy, Aleksei "⁠NickelBack⁠" Trofimov & Vladislav "⁠Krad⁠" Kravchenko are the only other Major-experienced players on the server. The other six players are looking for their first-ever appearance.

— 9 Pandas' coach, Andrey "⁠Xoma⁠" Mironenko, used to be the analyst of an Entropiq team that featured the core of today's AMKAL (the aforementioned trio).

Happy final day of Europe RMR A everyone!

Six teams remain in the running for three PGL Major spots, and they'll go head-to-head today with hopes of earning their place in Copenhagen.

Date	Matches
PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024 Europe RMR A
17/02/2024	9 Pandas 12:00 AMKAL	Match
17/02/2024	fnatic 15:25 SAW	Match
17/02/2024	Eternal Fire 17:10 BetBoom	Match

Yesterday was heartbreaking for Falcons, 3DMAX and Enterprise as they were eliminated from the running for the Major.

Today will not quite be the same with the losing sides getting another shot in the Last Chance Qualifier, but the odds will be heavily stacked against them there with just one spot available for six teams, so the pressure is very much on in the final round.