Brazilian soccer star Neymar interacted with the best CS:GO player in the world s1mple ahead of the FURIA vs. Natus Vincere quarterfinal showdown at the IEM Rio Major today.
Neymar, an avid supporter of FURIA, has been in contact with the Brazilians during the Major and even called Andrei “arT” Piovezan and crew after they won the first two matches in the Legends Stage. The soccer star, however, also DM’d s1mple on Twitter to wish him good luck against FURIA today at the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro.
Neymar is somewhat heavily involved in CS:GO. He’s played casual matches with the FURIA players in the past and even knifed Vitality’s star Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut on one of those occasions. The Paris Saint-Germain player is also a close friend of one of FURIA’s owners, Cris Guedes.
The match between FURIA and NAVI has the potential to be the best playoff series of the IEM Rio Major thus far. The crowd chose to not follow the first pair of quarterfinals inside the arena yesterday, but they’ll certainly be there to make noise and chant for FURIA when they face s1mple’s troops at 3:30pm CT.
The winner of FURIA vs. NAVI will play against the winner of Heroic vs. Spirit tomorrow at 3:30pm CT for a spot in the grand finals of the IEM Rio Major. FURIA have never made it past the quarterfinals in previous Majors, while four of the current NAVI players won the PGL Stockholm Major last year against G2.