The first Brazilian victory at IEM Rio Major today came in a battle of two home CS:GO teams. FURIA breezed past 00 Nation (16-6) on Mirage to move to the 1-1 pool of Challengers Stage and send their fellow rivals to elimination territory tomorrow.
This matchup set the Brazilian crowd on fire before it began but 00 Nation didn’t play well enough to keep everyone watching from home entertained.
Epitácio “TACO” de Melo and Marcelo “coldzera” David’s side couldn’t put a stop to FURIA’s T side aggressiveness in the first half and had to watch Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato go nuclear with 20 kills.
FURIA left 00 Nation with their back against the wall after they won the first half by 11-4 and didn’t let 00 Nation get any momentum going in the second half. FURIA displayed a nearly perfect CT side to close out Mirage by 16-6. KSCERATO added 12 more frags in just seven rounds and finished the match with 32 frags in total, half of all the frags 00 Nation got.
This statement victory is exactly what FURIA needed at IEM Rio Major after they let the game against BIG in the opening round slip from their hands.
As for 00 Nation, they’re yet to display great Counter-Strike at the event and will need to improve a lot to avoid being eliminated with a 0-3 record.
FURIA will play their last best-of-one series tomorrow in IEM Rio Major and 00 Nation will play their first best-of-three to avoid elimination from the first Brazilian Major.