IEM Rio day 1 summary: BIG send Heroic to the lower bracket

Day 1 of IEM Rio 2023 was very eventful and many of the favorites are now in a bad position. The initial hope that we will get to see the best teams of the Paris Major RMRs in the playoffs has already been crushed.

Luckily for the fans, FURIA Esports won their first match and are still in the upper bracket. But other competitors, such as Team Vitality, Heroic, and 9INE, are already fighting for survival.

Group A results

In group A of IEM Rio, BIG played two amazing matches in which they were regarded as underdogs. And they won both of them quite easily. The first was against MOUZ (16-6 on Overpass) while the second was against Heroic. The scores here were 16-14 on Vertigo, 11-16 on Nuke and 6-16 on Overpass.

It seems that Johannes “tabseN” Wodraz and his teammates want to make everyone forget about their recent Paris RMRs result and they’re doing a great job. Their best player at the moment seems to be Karim “Krimbo” Moussa, who finished the match against Heroic with 65 kills and 42 deaths.

9INE lost their first match against Heroic and then defeated MOUZ in the lower bracket. So MOUZ are already out, same as Imperial Esports, who lost against Ninjas in Pyjamas and then against The MongolZ.

After winning their initial matches, Natus Vincere and NiP met each other in the upper bracket semifinals. Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev’s team struggled a bit, especially on the second map, but in the end, managed to win with a clean score.

Group B results

In group B, the most exciting matches were FURIA vs. Fnatic (19-15) and Team Vitality vs. OG (17-19). It was quite shocking to see Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut losing so early and against this opponent, but in the lower bracket he should be able to go all the way and qualify for the playoffs.

Cloud9 and FaZe Clan had very easy opening matches. In FaZe Clan’s case, it was obvious that they played extremely relaxed after securing their spot at the Paris Major. The score was 16-3, which was partly expected given that 9z Team hadn’t done anything spectacular in 2023 and were simply a strong South American team.

For Cloud9, it wasn’t relaxation that helped them win. More like anger and the desire to prove doubters wrong after the team’s failure to qualify for the Major. Their match against MIBR finished with a score of 16-8.

Header: ESL