Cloud9, Sprout book IEM Rio CS:GO Major spots

Cloud9 and Sprout are the latest CS:GO teams from Europe Regional Major Ranking (RMR) A to qualify for the IEM Rio Major, the $1.25 million Valve-sponsored tournament that will run in Brazil from Oct. 31 to Nov. 13.

C9 did so at the expense of fellow Russian squad 1WIN, while Sprout defeated Ukrainian team B8 to secure their spot in the IEM Rio Major. C9 won the Russian derby 2-0 today thanks to impressive defensive performances on both maps, Vertigo (16-12) and Overpass (16-13), and thanks to Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov’s fragging capability.

Sprout, on the other hand, had to reverse sweep B8 to claim their IEM Rio Major spot. The international team led by former Heroic player Ismail “refrezh” Ali lost Nuke 16-13 but got the better of the Ukrainian team on Vertigo (16-13) and the decider Inferno (16-7). The Danish trio on Sprout consisting of refrezh, Victor Staehr, and Rasmus “Zyphon” Nordfoss combined for 188 frags throughout the series and had a massive impact on the result.

As for 1WIN and B8, today’s results leave them in the 2-2 pool of Europe RMR A’s Swiss system, meaning that it’s all or nothing for them in their next series. They’ll need a win to qualify for the IEM Rio Major and a loss will knock them out of the tournament.

The fourth day of Europe RMR is currently finishing with elimination series involving Fnatic, Astralis, G2, Eternal Fire, forZe, and GamerLegion.