Despite being just an A-tier CS2 event that didn’t feature a single team from the top ten, FiReLEAGUE Global Final offered the Argentinian crowd from Buenos Aires a lot of hyped matches.
Ahead of the tournament, paiN Gaming and Ninjas in Pyjamas were regarded as the favorites. But in the end, 9z Team were the winners.
9z’s Path To Victory
El hombre del 1.43 de rating, el mvp de la Fire League, @MartiinezSa 🇪🇸
📸 @JuamPulido pic.twitter.com/HZCTVX8efA
— 9z Globant (@9zTeam) June 17, 2024
9z had a poor start in this tournament. Their opponent was NiP, and despite winning the first half of Ancient 8 – 4, they ended up losing the map 10 – 13. The immense experience of players like alex and REZ made a big difference in turning the situation around for NiP.
After this defeat, 9z did not give up and won their next match against BESTIA. The score was 0 – 2 in their favor and both maps ended very quickly: 5 – 13 on Ancient and 8 – 13 on Anubis.
For 9z, MartinezSa and HUASOPEEK played incredibly well, ending the battle with a rating 2.0 of 1.67 and 1.55 respectively.
In the decider match, 9z encountered paiN Gaming, who finished 9th – 11th at the Copenhagen Major. They also won Global Esports Tour Rio de Janeiro 2024. Based on these results, everyone was convinced that paiN would win with ease. But the Brazilians were bested: 3 – 13 on Dust II, followed by a 13 – 16 thriller on Anubis.
Every single 9z player finished the match with a rating 2.0 of 1.30+. The best competitor was max.
Thanks to this victory, 9z qualified for the playoffs, where they encountered KOI. This team, composed of Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian players was no match for them. The scores were 13 – 4 on Mirage and 13 – 4 on Inferno.
In the Grand Final, 9z encountered Fnatic, who now have the former Astralis player blameF. This team looks very promising thanks to him as well as KRIMZ and bodyy. But they will need more months of training before they can compete against the world’s best.
Even in this match, against a team from outside of the top ten, they were not able to win a single map. The scores were 10 – 13 on Dust II and 4 – 13 on Inferno. As expected blameF played well but the rest of the team didn’t help him enough. Meanwhile, MartinezSa and dgt had a fantastic performance for 9z.
Their combined prowess was enough to carry the whole squad to a fully deserved trophy. It remains to be seen what this roster can do at a slightly higher competitive level.
Header: 9z Team