Heroic and Team Vitality are the finalists of IEM Rio 2023

That’s it! The two finalists of IEM Rio 2023 are Heroic and Team Vitality, as they beat NaVi and Cloud9 in the semifinals with relative ease. Now these two great teams will fight for the $100,000 in prize money and, most importantly, qualification for IEM Cologne 2023.

Team Vitality wants to return to the top of the CS:GO competitive scene and has a great opportunity in this tournament. On the other hand, Heroic is very good at playing on Brazilian soil, as they manage to reach their second consecutive final on South American soil. So now we must wait to see if the Danes can take the victory or fall again as they did in the IEM Rio Major 2022 against Outsiders.

Before the IEM Rio 2023 Grand Final, let’s see what happened in the semifinals.

Heroic crushes NaVi to secure their spot in the Grand Final

Heroic once again proved they feel at home playing in Rio de Janeiro. Just as they did in the IEM Rio Major 2022, but this time against NaVi, the Danes managed to advance to the tournament’s Grand Final after a resounding 2-0 victory. Heroic’s dominance was such that only Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev and some flashes of Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy were the ones who kept the team’s aspirations alive.

The series was played in Overpass (Heroic) and Ancient (NaVi).

Overpass

It all started on Overpass, Heroic’s map pick, where we were treated to some of the best CS:GO from both teams. With Heoric starting on the T side, we could see the team’s great offensive coordination, which led them to leave with an 8-7 lead in the first half.

Then, when switching sides, we could see more of the same, as NaVi, with Denis “electroNic” Sharipov, got around Heroic’s defense eight times. In addition, the Ukrainians had three chances to win the map, as they were ahead 15-12 at the end of the game. However, Rene “TeSeS” Madsen and Rasmus “sjuush” Beck denied each of NaVi’s offenses and sent the match to Overtime.

Finally, after six rounds of Overtime, Heroic took a 25-22 victory to give a hard blow to the Ukrainians, who, without a doubt, saw how the victory slipped through their fingers.

Ancient

NaVi has shown over the last few months that they are a team that plays a lot with their emotions. Well, it happened just like that in these IEM Rio 2023 semifinals.

After they lost the first map, NaVi disconnected from the series and entered Ancient without a north. However, no credit to Heroic, who were able to take advantage of each of the mistakes made by NaVi throughout the series.

The map had an absolute dominant, Heroic. From the start, we all knew this could have ended in tragedy for NaVi, as the Danes managed to take the victory in the first half on the TC side with a crushing score of 14-1. Martin “stavn” Lund (137.5 ADR and 2.32 Rating) made life miserable for the Ukrainians in this half.

However, this was not all, as NaVi, thanks to a spectacular awakening of s1mple, managed to win eight consecutive rounds to put themselves 14-9 on the scoreboard and, consequently, get back into the match. Finally, Heroic won the remaining two rounds to take the 16-9 victory.

Team Vitality apply a reverse sweep to defeat Cloud9

Undoubtedly, Cloud9 and Team Vitality are at their best in this 2023 season in the CS:GO scene. Both teams have shown a great level, and thanks to that, they always give us spectacular matches, and this one in the semifinals of IEM Rio 2023 was no exception.

The series was played on Inferno (Team Vitality), Vertigo (Cloud9), and Overpass (decider).

Inferno

Cloud9 kicked off this series on Team Vitality’s map pick, Inferno. Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov and Abay “HObbit” Khassenov were the architects of C9’s thrashing of Vitality.

While it is true that the first half ended with a tight score of 9-6, with Team Vitality on the T side, the change of sides was completely different. Cloud9, with unexpected aggressiveness, managed to do damage in all parts of the map on their T-side and won all seven consecutive rounds to take the victory by 16-6.

Vertigo

In Vertigo, everything seemed to indicate that Cloud9’s victory was imminent and that it would be, once again, by thrashing. However, Team Vitality had a spectacular comeback to take the victory.

Cloud9 started their map pick extremely strong, winning the first half 12-3. After that, Sh1ro continued to wreak havoc on their opponents everywhere on the map. However, when the sides changed, Team Vitality reacted, winning 12 of the first 13 rounds to take a 15-13 lead. Finally, C9 could send the match to Overtime by winning the last two rounds.

Team Vitality was completely inspired, and it showed in the Overtime. After losing the first round, the French team, led by Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, won four consecutive rounds to even the series 1-1.

Overpass

With emotions running high and total inspiration in each of their players, Team Vitality started extremely strong on the CT side of the Overpass, as they took a 12-3 partial victory. However, this time it was Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut who was the hero and carried all the weight of his team.

At the change of sides, Cloud9 tried to wake up and won up to five consecutive rounds, but, unlike them in the first map, Team Vitality could close the match and take the victory by 16-9.

Header: ESL