Imperial breeze through Americas RMR to qualify for Copenhagen

VINI's squad dropped just 14 rounds in their four map wins in Mexico.

Imperial will return to the Major with their new-look young roster after dominating the Americas RMR. The Brazilians dropped just five rounds in their opening best-of-ones against NRG and M80 before smashing paiN 2-0 (13-5 Mirage, 13-4 Nuke).

The organization last appeared at a Major for Rio 2022, when the project was led by Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo and his Last Dance, before missing Paris 2023 and rebuilding around Vinicius "⁠VINI⁠" Figueiredo as the in-game leader.

But it has been an even longer wait for experienced star AWPer Henrique "⁠HEN1⁠" Teles, who has not appeared at a Valve-sponsored event since Krakow 2017, where he and coach Rafael "⁠zakk⁠" Fernandes placed second as part of Immortals.

HEN1's career since then has peaked and troughed, rising to the 16th best player of 2020 in FURIA before dropping out of tier one, and now returning with a team-high 1.62 rating to help Imperial into the Copenhagen Major.

Both teams floated their usual permaban Ancient but paiN allowed Imperial to choose home map Mirage to kick off the series and were swiftly punished. HEN1 and company raced to an 8-1 lead to prove their online dominance — Imperial were 15-2 on Mirage with this roster before the match — could translate on LAN as well.

João "⁠felps⁠" Vasconcellos pulled off all of his old tricks, finding picks in Middle early and late into rounds as he made Ladder room his own. Another sneaky triple kill from Ticket on CT sealed the map in Imperial's favor.

Nuke was paiN's pick but another strong battleground for Imperial, and HEN1 went on a tear as Imperial went one better than Mirage for a 9-1 lead early on.

Youngsters Kaiky "⁠noway⁠" Santos and Lucas "⁠decenty⁠" Bacelar also impressed throughout as Imperial produced another mature performance to close Nuke out 13-4 and secure the all-important Major spot.