GamerLegion eliminate Falcons from Europe RMR; NAVI through to Elimination Stage

s1mple's return to competition may have been cut short once again as Falcons go out of the RMR with a whimper with nothing left to play this year.

Falcons are out of contention for a spot at the Perfect World Shanghai Major after being eliminated from the Europe RMR by GamerLegion.

Timur "⁠FL4MUS⁠" Marev led the way for GamerLegion on the series-deciding Mirage, but all of the young European combine found moments at crucial points in the series to stay alive in the qualifier and go into the 2-2 round to play for the final two Major spots on offer in the first European group.

Date	Matches
Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 Europe RMR A
20/11/2024	SINNERS 09:45 GamerLegion	Match

GamerLegion outclassed Falcons on Vertigo as only Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif and Pavle "⁠Maden⁠" Bošković turned up to play in their first time on the map following the addition of Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev.

After Nuke went the other way with Magisk and Maden keeping up form from the opener, it went down to Mirage. Henrich "⁠sl3nd⁠" Hevesi got GamerLegion started the decider with a pistol quad-kill, FL4MUS found several big plays and pulled off a couple of flanks in the middle of it, and Sebastian "⁠volt⁠" Maloș closed it with eight kills in four consecutive retake scenarios.

On the other side, a heroic effort from s1mple on the decider was not enough to keep Falcons alive in the Major qualifier.

The Ukrainian's return to competition may well have been cut short once more, after his previous in March lasted just one series. His loan from Natus Vincere was originally due to last until the end of the year, but with nothing else left to play and Falcons inevitably heading for changes, it's unclear what the Ukrainian's future with the team is.

That counts just as much for everyone else on the team other than Magisk, who has been the one bright light in a struggling team for months now. Dropping in the rankings already ahead of the first invites for 2025's tournaments going out in a few weeks' time, Danny "⁠zonic⁠" Sørensen may very well decide to blow up the core in another rebuild.

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As a result of GamerLegion's win, Natus Vincere have become the top-seeded 3-1 team, which means they have qualified directly for the Elimination Stage. The other two 3-1 teams, Cloud9 and FaZe, will play to skip the first Major stage in a fourth-place decider.