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FURIA have joined the growing list of teams to qualify for the Challengers Stage of the 2022 IEM Rio Major via the Americas Regional Major Ranking (RMR). The team is now the first Brazilian squad to qualify for the Valve-sponsored Counter-strike: Global Offensive event, which will be held in Brazil for the first time.
FURIA secured a 2-0 win against paiN Gaming, a fellow Brazilian lineup. The teams faced off on Nuke and Vertigo in the Swiss round’s 2-1 pool and saw FURIA deal out a crushing defeat to paiN.
While paiN have given an impressive performance over the past months, FURIA have faced some apparent issues with their aggressive playstyle. Despite this, paiN were soundly trounced on Nuke, where FURIA achieved a 16-8 win due to a strong CT side.
PaiN put up a better fight on the second map, Vertigo, and both teams traded back-and-forth rounds after FURIA won the pistol round on the T side. Despite paiN’s attempts, their countrymen still managed to run away with the deciding victory. FURIA’s rifler, André “drop” Abreu, closed Vertigo with a 16-13 score after executing four AK kills on the bombsite A defense.
The franchise’s AWPer, Rafael “saffee” Costa, was the best player of the series as he attained a 1.42 overall rating. The player also averaged a 50-31 K-D and an ADR of 89.0. All the players in the FURIA lineup did impressively well and reached a positive overall rating.
PaiN, on the other hand, had no player reach a positive rating in the series, with Rodrigo “biguzera” Bittencourt’s 0.99 rating being the highest on the roster. All the franchise’s players recorded a higher death count than frags in the series.
Due to the team’s reputation as the best Brazilian CS:GO lineup currently, FURIA were under immense pressure to qualify for the Major. In an interview conducted after the match, Andrei “arT” Piovezan revealed that the win felt “amazing” for the team and had helped them achieve their aim of playing on the home ground.
“Amazing, that was our objective, and it is fulfilled now, so we are very happy to be there with the friends and with the family,” arT said.
“It’s going to be amazing.”
The 2022 IEM Rio Major will not be FURIA’s first time being a part of a Major. The team previously participated in the Stockholm and Antwerp Majors and reached the playoffs in both events.
At the start of the Americas RMR, the Brazilian team suffered a narrow loss at the hands of the North American team, Evil Geniuses. This pushed them to the 1-1 pool, but they were able to climb back on top after securing an easy victory against O PLANO and, most recently, paiN Gaming.
Due to FURIA’s win, the Americas RMR currently has only two spots available for the IEM Rio Major. Other teams that have snagged tickets to the event include Evil Geniuses, Team Liquid, and 9z. NA franchises Complexity and 00NATION are the next teams to compete for a chance to attend the Major.
PaiN is currently in the 2-2 bracket of the Americas RMR and will be given one more chance to qualify for the IEM Rio Major. The franchise will take on South African CS:GO franchise ATK in their next outing. On GG.BET, paiN are said to be heavy favorites to win the game with odds of $1.17.
The winner of the matchup will compete with two other teams as the 6th place Tiebreakers. The Challenger stage of the event will kick off on October 31, and the tournament will continue till November 13.
