Goodbye NA: 9z send EG packing from Americas RMR to keep Major dream alive

Today is a historical day for South American CS:GO. Franco “dgt” Garcia, Luca “Luken” Nadotti, David “dav1d” Maldonado, Maximiliano “max” Gonzalez, and Martin “rox” Molina have taken down the once almighty Evil Geniuses in the PGL Antwerp Major Americas Regional Major Ranking (RMR) tiebreaker to keep their dream of qualifying for the Major alive.

A CS:GO fan that has not been following the scene may think the 9z win over EG was an upset, but it was definitely not. The South Americans were looking better the entire tournament and they proved today that they’re a better team. The series kicked off on Nuke and 9z continuously found gaps in EG’s defensive setup, having won six consecutive rounds as Terrorists. That buff gave dgt and company a great advantage to work on in the second half and they took the map 16-12.

EG fought back on Inferno, despite having lost the first half by 9-6. The North Americans displayed a nearly flawless defense in the second half and allowed 9z to score only three times, winning the game 16-12. That comeback could have fueled EG for Overpass, but instead, they delivered a sloppy CT side in the first half (9-6) and saw 9z reverse the scoreboard once they were in the defense. The last rounds of play were back and forth, but in the end, 9z closed the map 16-14 thanks to a miraculous triple kill from dgt with just 12HP left. The Uruguayan finished Overpass with 33 frags and a 75-49 K/D across the entire series.

The Uruguayans, Argentinians, and Chilean players of 9z now only need to secure a victory against the Brazilians of paiN Gaming to book their spot at the Major. Should they pull it through, it would be the first time a non-Brazilian team from South America qualify for a CS:GO Major. If paiN secure it, though, Brazil will have four teams playing at the Major.

As for Evil Geniuses, today’s defeat only shows what other previous tournaments have shown before. The reunion of ELEAGUE Major Boston champions Jake “Stewie2K” Yip, Timothy “autimatic” Ta, and William “RUSH” Wierzba is not working. They consecutively fail to win matches, even if it’s against weaker opposition, in theory. It’s hard to not project roster changes after the Americas RMR and the ESL Pro League season 15 fiasco.

With EG out of contention, Team Liquid and Complexity are the only North American teams qualified for PGL Antwerp Major. PaiN and 9z will decide the last Americas spot today at 8:30am CT.