fnatic clinch IEM Rio Major berth

The storied organization returns to its first Major since IEM Katowice 2019.

fnatic comfortably dispatched of 1WIN in a two-map series, winning Overpass (16-5) and Ancient (16-9) to go 3-2 in the Europe RMR A tournament and book their spot at the IEM Rio Major Challengers Stage.

Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev & co. have been eliminated from the tournament with a 2-3 record after they were unable to convert either of their two chances to qualify for the Major with losses to Cloud9 and the European mix around William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman.

Read more Calling and fragging, mezii is at center of fnatic's bid to return to a Major

fnatic had found themselves in an unenviable situation after they followed up their opening day victory against Aurora with losses against FaZe and B8. Once they moved away from the best-of-one format, they showed a different face, comfortably beating Eternal Fire and 1WIN to return to the Major stage.

mezii led fnatic to their first Major in over three years

1WIN began Overpass by taking a quick lead with a pistol round win, but they weren't ahead for long. fnatic fought back with a seven-round streak, as the CIS squad looked bereft of ideas.

That meant the European combine raced to a 10-5 lead at the half, with mezii providing the highlight of the map by getting an ace on the B site. 1WIN, who struggled on the offensive side of Overpass against Cloud9 in their previous match, once again failed to find any success on the T side, losing six straight to lose the map 5-16.

1WIN's woes on the offense continued on Ancient, where fnatic completely shut out their opponents in the opening eight rounds, not even allowing them a bomb plant in the process. flamie rolled back the years with a 1vs3 clutch on the B site, and just as 1WIN looked to be getting back into the game, they lost a round to fnatic's eco. The European combine used the momentum straight to halftime to lead 13-2.

1WIN started their defense by winning the first six rounds of the half, looking much more comfortable on the map's preferred side. But with fnatic's massive lead from the first half, it was only a matter of time before they closed out the game. Two ferocious attacks proved too much for the CIS squad to handle, as fnatic reached match point and eventually closed out the game 16-9.

IEM Road to Rio 2022 Europe RMR ABest of 3 fnaticMatchpage 2 0 8th October 2022 1WIN 16Overpass 5 16Ancient 9

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Nico 'nicoodoz' Tamjidinicoodoz	47 - 22	+25	97.5	1.59
Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonKRIMZ	39 - 23	+16	87.6	1.41
William 'mezii' Merrimanmezii	36 - 29	+7	91.7	1.31
Fredrik 'roeJ' JørgensenroeJ	36 - 31	+5	80.9	1.28
Dion 'FASHR' DerksenFASHR	29 - 28	+1	61.4	1.01

1WIN	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Aleksandr 'TRAVIS' TimkivTRAVIS	33 - 38	-5	83.1	1.00
Egor 'flamie' Vasilyevflamie	29 - 37	-8	78.5	0.91
Aleksandr 'glowiing' Matsievichglowiing	31 - 37	-6	79.8	0.91
Denis 'deko' Zhukovdeko	24 - 37	-13	61.2	0.73
Igor 'lollipop21k' Solodkovlollipop21k	16 - 38	-22	44.9	0.45

The teams who qualified for the IEM Rio Major so far are:

Legends Stage
FaZe
Ninjas in Pyjamas
Natus Vincere
ENCE Challengers Stage
9z
FURIA
00NATION
IHC
fnatic
GamerLegion

TBD*
Liquid
Evil Geniuses
Spirit
Cloud9
Sprout
HEROIC
Vitality
OG

* Liquid vs. Evil Geniuses will decide one Legends spot

The highest seeded team between Spirit, Cloud9, and Sprout will secure a Legends spot automatically, and the other two teams will play for another

HEROIC, Vitality, and OG will play in a third-place decider bracket for a Legends spot

FaZe #1 Håvard 'rain' NygaardHelvijs 'broky' SaukantsRussel 'Twistzz' Van DulkenRobin 'ropz' KoolFinn 'karrigan' Andersen Eternal Fire #20 Ömer 'imoRR' KarataşIsmailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşÖzgür 'woxic' EkerEngin 'MAJ3R' KüpeliAhmet 'paz' Karahoca Ninjas in Pyjamas #11 Patrick 'es3tag' HansenFredrik 'REZ' SternerHampus 'hampus' PoserAleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenLudvig 'Brollan' Brolin ENCE #18 Marco 'Snappi' PfeifferValdemar 'valde' Bjørn VangsåPavle 'Maden' BoškovićPaweł 'dycha' DychaÁlvaro 'SunPayus' García 9z #50 Maximiliano 'max' GonzalezFranco 'dgt' GarciaDavid 'dav1deuS' Tapia MaldonadoLucas 'nqz' SoaresNicolás 'buda' Kramer OG #14 Nemanja 'nexa' IsakovićAdam 'NEOFRAG' ZouharShahar 'flameZ' ShushanAbdul 'degster' GasanovMaciej 'F1KU' Miklas Sprout #31 Ismail 'refrezh' AliFritz 'slaxz-' DietrichRasmus 'Zyphon' NordfossVictor 'Staehr' StaehrLaurențiu 'lauNX' Țârlea Natus Vincere #2 Oleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' SharipovViktor 'sdy' OrudzhevIlya 'Perfecto' ZalutskiyValeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy Vitality #3 Dan 'apEX' MadesclairePeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenEmil 'Magisk' ReifMathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautLotan 'Spinx' Giladi HEROIC #10 Casper 'cadiaN' MøllerMartin 'stavn' LundRené 'TeSeS' MadsenRasmus 'sjuush' BeckJakob 'jabbi' Nygaard FURIA #7 Andrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosKaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoRafael 'saffee' CostaAndré 'drop' Abreu William 'mezii' Merriman Age: 23 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 559 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.63 Aurora #36 Viktor 'Lack1' BoldyrevArtem 'RAiLWAY' GradovichEvgeny 'delus1onn' PlottsovAleksandr 'KaiR0N-' AnashkinAmin 'sugaR' Azimov fnatic #19 Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonNico 'nicoodoz' TamjidiFredrik 'roeJ' JørgensenWilliam 'mezii' MerrimanDion 'FASHR' Derksen Cloud9 #6 Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovTimofey 'interz' YakushinSergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovDmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovVladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov Egor 'flamie' Vasilyev Age: 25 Team: 1WIN Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 1664 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.66 Spirit #15 Leonid 'chopper' VishnyakovBoris 'magixx' VorobievPavel 'S1ren' OgloblinRobert 'Patsi' IsyanovIhor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov 00NATION #29 Marcelo 'coldzera' DavidEpitacio 'TACO' de MeloEduardo 'dumau' WolkmerBruno 'latto' RebelattoSantino 'try' Rigal IHC #82 Bat-Enkh 'kabal' BatbayarTengis 'sk0R' BatjargalTuvshintugs 'Annihilation' NyamdorjGaridmagnai 'bLitz' ByambasurenSodbayar 'Techno' Munkhbold Evil Geniuses #22 Timothy 'autimatic' TaVincent 'Brehze' CayonteTsvetelin 'CeRq' DimitrovSanzhar 'neaLaN' IskhakovJadan 'HexT' Postma FaZe #1 Håvard 'rain' NygaardHelvijs 'broky' SaukantsRussel 'Twistzz' Van DulkenRobin 'ropz' KoolFinn 'karrigan' Andersen B8 #69 Arseniy 'cptkurtka023' DerevinskiyArtem 'r1nkle' MorozMykyta 'Hkta' RevaAlexey 'alex666' YarmoshchukDenys 'amster' Liashenko fnatic #19 Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonNico 'nicoodoz' TamjidiFredrik 'roeJ' JørgensenWilliam 'mezii' MerrimanDion 'FASHR' Derksen 1WIN #33 Aleksandr 'TRAVIS' TimkivDenis 'deko' ZhukovEgor 'flamie' VasilyevIgor 'lollipop21k' SolodkovAleksandr 'glowiing' Matsievich GamerLegion #60 Frederik 'acoR' GyldstrandMihai 'iM' IvanNicolas 'Keoz' DgusKamil 'siuhy' SzkaradekIsak 'isak' Fahlén Liquid #4 Nick 'nitr0' CannellaKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJosh 'oSee' OhmMareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis