FaZe Clan and NiP Are Out of IEM Rio Major

IEM Rio Major proved to us what we already knew about Counter-Strike: Global Offensive: at the highest competitive level, previous trophies mean nothing. Teams can lose even if they’re regarded as big favorites to win the tournament.

FaZe Clan entered the tournament as the winners of the previous CS:GO Major, PGL Antwerp. Ninjas in Pyjamas finished that event in 5th – 8th place.

Furthermore, both teams finished the European RMRs for IEM Rio Major with perfect scores, which is how they got their Legend Status. But as soon as the Legend Stage of the tournament began, they just couldn’t cope with the pressure.

FaZe Clan’s Unfortunate Run

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FaZe Clan’s results could have been so much better! But the team ran into some really tough opponents and lost most of the maps in the most dramatic way possible.

The first team they encountered was Cloud9. The match was played on Overpass and FaZe Clan had a big advantage after the first half: 11 – 4. But in the second half, C9 won just enough rounds to avoid overtime: 14 – 16. Apart from Finn “karrigan” Andersen, every FaZe member had a positive K-D score.

The second match was brutal. FaZe encountered Vitality, who fell victim to Natus Vincere in their first match (25-21). Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut was in his usual form and he simply obliterated karrigan’s team. The final score was 16-6, while his personal K-D score was +14.

The third match seemed perfectly winnable for FaZe, but after a 0 W – 2 L start, they were clearly playing with low morale. This allowed Bad News Eagles to exploit their fatigue and win two of the three maps in overtime.

It’s not very likely that FaZe Clan’s management will make roster changes after this failure. The team is still very capable of winning tournaments, but they were extremely unfortunate in Brazil.

NiP’s Failure

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NiP started the Legends Stage of IEM Rio Major with a close defeat versus Fnatic: 13 - 16. It could have been much worse because the score was 5 – 10 after the first half. But NiP fought hard and nearly completed the comeback.

In the second match, Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen led his team against Outsiders. It should have been a difficult match for both sides with a happy ending for the Swedes. But the Russians proved to be a bit stronger. The score was 12 – 16.

In their third match, NiP’s fans were hopeful. After all, this was a best-of-three series against Sprout, a team that had a few strong players but lacked NiP’s experience. Despite the perceived advantages, the Swedes lost again. The battle was somewhat close (16 – 11 on Vertigo and 16 – 14 on Ancient), but in the end, NiP got eliminated.

Header: ESL