Brazil’s chief Counter-Strike: Global Offensive export barely held on to their tournament life at ESL One Cologne today.
The competition is MIBR’s debut, with the organization signing the entirety of the former SK Gaming CS:GO roster on June 23. The team played a close three-map series against North today, which eventually ended 2-1 in favor of the Brazilians. This means the squad now only needs to win one more match to reach the playoffs of the $300,000 event.
The Brazilian roster, which brought former Cloud9 star Jake “Stewie2k” Yip into the fold on March 31, is recognized as one of the strongest teams in CS:GO history. This year has been the team’s worst in terms of results, however. Although MIBR won against North the match was anything but easy.
MIBR were completely demolished on the opening half of the first map Mirage, with the team dropping 11 rounds to North. Although the team proceeded to make a comeback in the second half, North’s lead was so large that the Danes were able to close the map out just before it reached overtime.
On the second map, Overpass, MIBR looked far more comfortable, and never gave North an opportunity to riposte after a dominant first half. Inferno would be the last map of the series, and despite strong performances out of North on the opening half, MIBR once again staged a comeback, much in part due to a stellar performance from Marcelo “coldzera” David, who scored a total of 33 kills on the final map alone.
Meanwhile, BIG were able to eliminate Renegades from contention after a 2-1 series. Each of the three maps were incredibly even, but after 91 rounds in total the German team secured their victory. BIG will now play MIBR for a chance to appear in front of their home crowd at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne.
