Following a thrilling 19-17 victory over Fnatic today, FaZe Clan has advanced to the 2-0 pool of the IEM Rio Major Europe Regional Major Ranking (RMR) A.
Like their match against GamerLegion yesterday, FaZe were on the ropes but took the game to overtime. Fundamentally, what kept the international CS:GO powerhouse in the Nuke game was their typical cool demeanor and a stellar performance from the Latvian AWPer Helvijs “broky” Saukants. The 21-year-old had a massive impact throughout the game with multiple multi-kills and finished the best-of-one with 36 frags, 10 more than FaZe’s second-best fragger, Håvard “rain” Nygaard.
Although Fnatic will likely be kicking themselves for not taking down FaZe and moving on to an advancement match already in the competition, they should be proud for pushing arguably the best CS:GO team in the world right now to the limit.
In-game leader William “mezii” Merriman and AWPer Nico “nicoodoz” Tamjidi were particularly strong throughout the game and Fnatic should have no trouble in making the IEM Rio Major if they keep playing this way. Teams attending the Europe RMR must win three matches to qualify for the tournament and all elimination and advancement matches are played as best-of-three series.
The second day of Europe RMR A will conclude shortly, but there’s still one big matchup to follow. G2 and Cloud9 will face off in the 1-0 pool and one of the two best CS:GO teams in the event will suffer their first loss.