FURIA Esports have achieved their best performance of this year in the group stage of IEM Rio 2024. The Brazilians made their fans proud by defeating formidable opponents like FaZe Clan, MOUZ, and Natus Vincere to win group A.
This win streak against three of the top six teams in the world, including the very best, is nothing short of a miracle. FURIA’s players must be amazed at their ability to play well when they know the fans are counting on them.
But this is not the first time it has happened. At the IEM Rio Major in 2022, the Brazilian team performed well in the first two stages. Then it eliminated Natus Vincere in the quarterfinals before losing to HEROIC in the semifinals. That was another peak for Brazilian Counter-Strike, at least in the last 6-7 years.
Group A Results
Apart from FURIA, who won the group, and Natus Vincere, who finished 2nd, MOUZ also qualified for the playoffs of IEM Rio 2024 by defeating FaZe Clan 2 – 1. The match could have ended after the first two maps but Finn “karrigan” Andersen managed to make a comeback and then won in overtime.
Group B Results
In group B, HEROIC surprised everyone by defeating G2 Esports, Team Vitality, and Virtus.pro to win the group. Unfortunately for G2, who were the winners of the recent BLAST Premier Fall Final, their run ended after just two matches.
First, they lost 13 – 10 against HEROIC, and then they were defeated by Eternal Fire in the lower bracket (0 – 2).
The second match was a complete disaster and gave us the impression that G2’s players either didn’t prepare very well or suffered from jetlag. Compared to their Grand Final performance against Na’Vi from just two weeks ago, they were unrecognizable.
The scores were 13 – 4 on Anubis and 13 – 6 on Mirage. Apart from Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov, who finished with a score of 35 – 28, everyone else was practically absent from the server. Nikola “NiKo” Kovac, in particular, had a rough time: 11 – 32. This was one of the worst performances of his entire career.
The other two teams that qualified from this group were Team Vitality and Virtus.pro. Astralis, despite their best efforts, lost against HEROIC and VP. Their roster is not yet ready to triumph against the world’s best.
