fnatic, OG advance to IEM Rio EU closed qualifier

16-8-2024 00:02

OG made it through the first open qualifier in their debut with Buzz and Chr1zN.

Upon their debut with Buzz and Chr1zN, OG made it through to the closed qualifier for IEM Rio

fnatic and OG have advanced from the first IEM Rio Europe open qualifier following wins over QUAZAR and B8, respectively, in the qualifying round.

OG bench k1to, Buzz to trial for the team

Nearly 600 teams took part in the single-elimination bracket, where several notable names including ENCE, Ninjas in Pyjamas, GamerLegion, and TSM were cut down ahead of the HLTV-covered Round of 16.

BLEED, KOI, 9INE, PARIVISION, and the new-look Gaimin Gladiators with Fredrik "⁠roeJ⁠" Jørgensen and Nico "⁠nicoodoz⁠" Tamjidi then had their runs ended, with the latter two teams falling to OG and fnatic ahead of the best-of-three qualifying round.

Gaimin Gladiators sign roeJ, nicoodoz

OG secured qualification and some confidence-boosting wins in their first recorded officials with Christian "⁠Buzz⁠" Andersen and former MOUZ NXT in-game leader Christoffer "⁠Chr1zN⁠" Storgaard, beating ARCRED and PARIVISION before closing out a hard-fought 2-0 over B8.

IEM Rio 2024 Europe Open Qualifier 1Best of 3

Matchpage

15th August 2024

Inferno

Ancient

fnatic, too, were pushed the distance at the end of their qualifier run, moving from a comfortable win over Rebels to needing to come back against Gaimin Gladiators for a spot in the advancement match.

QUAZAR, ranked at No. 167, then stole the first map of the best-of-three from fnatic despite a 1.43-rated showing from Matúš "⁠MATYS⁠" Šimko, but got steamrolled by a dominant fnatic on their Vertigo pick and couldn't convert an 8-5 lead on Vertigo, losing out to a strong T half from MATYS, Aurélien "⁠afro⁠" Drapier, and Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer, the latter of whom ended the series with a 1.76 rating and 113.9 ADR.

IEM Rio 2024 Europe Open Qualifier 1Best of 3

QUAZAR

Matchpage

15th August 2024

fnatic

Anubis

Ancient

Vertigo

fnatic and OG join four invited teams in the closed qualifier, with two more spots to be awarded through the second open qualifier, set to begin on Sunday.

The current team list for the closed qualifier is:

HEROIC