Grayhound put Cloud9 on brink of elimination; fnatic claim second win in Rio

The Australians completed the comeback in extra time to earn their first Challengers Stage victory.

Grayhound pulled off the upset over Cloud9 in their 0-1 match, sending the Russians to the elimination pool of the IEM Rio Major Challengers Stage. The Australians were down 5-10 by halftime, but found their groove and turned things around for a 19-17 overtime win. Vladislav "⁠nafany⁠" Gorshkov's side now require a flawless display in their next three matches if they want to reach the next stage of the tournament, with a loss immediately eliminating them from the Major.

Meanwhile in the 1-0 pool, fnatic handed OG their first loss in Rio after taking home a 16-13 victory on Mirage. William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman's squad join Bad News Eagles, GamerLegion, and MOUZ on the list of teams who went undefeated on day one, with the quartet now just one series away from progressing through to the Legends Stage.

aliStair shined bright for his side and finished with a 1.13 rating

Cloud9 opened Dust2 with a 4-0 lead behind Abay "⁠HObbit⁠" Khassenov's hot hand with eight kills. Grayhound finally got themselves on the board in the fifth, but couldn't quite shake the Russians as nafany and company remained comfortably ahead and finished the half with a 10-5 advantage. HObbit and Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov were the heaviest hitters throughout the first half and went into the switch with 20 and 16 kills, respectively.

Grayhound turned the game on its head in the second period as they won six straight coming out of halftime, a spree which completely erased their deficit and gave them an 11-10 lead. The Australians later clinched match point at 15-13, but Cloud9 dug deep and scored the last two rounds of regulation through successful A pushes to force overtime. Six rounds of extra time later, Joshua "⁠INS⁠" Potter's men completed their second half comeback and emerged victorious over Cloud9, 19-17.

sh1ro and HObbit's had a performance for the books with 36 and 34 kills each, but their efforts weren't enough to give the Russians their first win in Rio.

IEM Rio Major 2022 Challengers StageBest of 1 Cloud9Matchpage 17 19 1st November 2022 Grayhound 17Dust2 19

fnatic kicked off Mirage with a pistol round win which translated to an early 4-1 lead. An Adam "⁠NEOFRAG⁠" Zouhar triple-kill kickstarted OG's own spree which eventually gave them their first lead of the map at 6-5, but mezii's men scored the next three out of four rounds to close out the half and give fnatic a narrow 8-7 advantage at the break.

Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković's crew dropped the second pistol but won the next four straight rounds as the attackers, which put fnatic on the back seat in terms of economy and swung the momentum in OG's favor. Just as things started to look up for OG, the men in black-and-orange successfully stole the 21st round away with their full-pistol setup, which sparked a resurgence that carried on to the finish line. fnatic hit match point at 15-12 and just two rounds later wrapped the game up for a 16-13 victory, improving their Challengers Stage record to 2-0.

IEM Rio Major 2022 Challengers StageBest of 1 OGMatchpage 13 16 1st November 2022 fnatic 13Mirage 16 Group Challengers Stage 2W - 0L Bad News Eagles GamerLegion MOUZ fnatic 1W - 1L OG FURIA Vitality Evil Geniuses BIG 9z Outsiders Grayhound 0W - 2L Cloud9 IHC Imperial 00NATION Joshua 'INS' Potter Age: 24 Team: Grayhound Rating 1.0: 1.12 Maps played: 991 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.65 Bad News Eagles #23 Rigon 'rigoN' GashiSener 'SENER1' MahmutiFlatron 'juanflatroo' HalimiDionis 'sinnopsyy' BudeciGenc 'gxx-' Kolgeci Cloud9 #5 Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovTimofey 'interz' YakushinSergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovDmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovVladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov Adam 'NEOFRAG' Zouhar Age: 21 Team: OG Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 718 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.67 Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov Age: 28 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 1210 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.65 OG #14 Nemanja 'nexa' IsakovićAdam 'NEOFRAG' ZouharShahar 'flameZ' ShushanAbdul 'degster' GasanovMaciej 'F1KU' Miklas Nemanja 'nexa' Isaković Age: 25 Team: OG Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 1290 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.63 Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov Age: 21 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 1.22 Maps played: 910 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.53 MOUZ #9 Christopher 'dexter' NongDavid 'frozen' ČerňanskýJon 'JDC' de CastroÁdám 'torzsi' TorzsásDorian 'xertioN' Berman Vladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov Age: 21 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 0.96 Maps played: 911 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.69 fnatic #19 Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonDion 'FASHR' DerksenNico 'nicoodoz' TamjidiFredrik 'roeJ' JørgensenWilliam 'mezii' Merriman GamerLegion #25 Frederik 'acoR' GyldstrandMihai 'iM' IvanNicolas 'Keoz' DgusKamil 'siuhy' SzkaradekIsak 'isak' Fahlén William 'mezii' Merriman Age: 24 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 564 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.63 Grayhound #41 Simon 'Sico' WilliamsJay 'Liazz' TregillgasAlistair 'aliStair' JohnstonJoshua 'INS' PotterDeclan 'Vexite' Portelli