9 Pandas eliminate Aurora from RMR to reach 2-2 pool

r3salt won out in the battle against his former team to keep 9 Pandas' Major dreams alive.

9 Pandas have eliminated Aurora from Perfect World Shanghai Major contention following a two-map series victory in Europe RMR B.

It was a grudge match for Evgeny "⁠r3salt⁠" Frolov against his former team, which he departed in August to join 9 Pandas in a dramatic last-minute swap deal for Timur "⁠clax⁠" Sabirov.

Read more

r3salt: "I've moved to 9 Pandas to f*** even harder than I do now"

It isn't a decision that the Russian player regrets now after 9 Pandas picked up their first victory in 2024 over Aurora after falling in their previous four meetings, with the result made all the sweeter as 9 Pandas now reach the 2-2 pool with a shot at qualifying for the Major.

Aurora's RMR campaign ends with a whimper after they tallied a solitary win over B8 and suffered losses to Spirit and Eternal Fire before the elimination series.

They started on the right foot by grabbing early control on their Mirage pick, going up 6-3 on the T side off the back of an anti-eco ace from clax and a few multi-kills from Viktor "⁠Lack1⁠" Boldyrev.

It wasn't a confident lead, however, with several missed Window smokes and some close rounds keeping 9 Pandas in it, and the game completely flipped after another missed Window smoke delayed Aurora in Middle long enough for 9 Pandas to steal a round with pistols.

9 Pandas gained steam from there with r3salt winning a 1v2 and the score getting tied at the half, and once they swapped to the attack, they never looked back. It helped that they won four out of five clutches on the map, but Aleksandr "⁠shalfey⁠" Marenov and r3salt both deserve immense credit for making it such a runaway to steal away Aurora's pick.

Any hopes of a competitive map were thrown out the window on Dust2 as shalfey's dominance continued and Artem "⁠iDISBALANCE⁠" Egorov's AWP picked apart Aurora's flat defense, only sporadic CT rounds mounted for a 9-3 scoreline at the break. 9 Pandas surged towards map point after the swap and quickly closed out the series after Aurora second-guessed themselves and ran into B too late.