9z become first South American CS:GO team to qualify for IEM Rio Major

9z, a CS:GO team featuring Chilean, Uruguayan, Argentinian, and Brazilian players, have booked their spot in the IEM Rio Major Challengers Stage following a 2-0 victory against ATK in the Americas Regional Major Ranking (RMR) 2-1 pool.

The South American mix dominated the North Americans in both maps of the series, especially on ATK’s map pick Inferno. 9z conceded only two rounds to ATK on Inferno thanks to their strong defensive setup, which helped all of their players contribute in the fragging department. There was no way ATK could have recovered from that 13-2 half and 9z quickly took care of the first map, closing it 16-2.

9z kept the momentum going on their map pick Dust 2 and secured 10 rounds as Terrorists in the first half, and went on to put a dominant CT side performance in which they only lost two rounds once again before taking the map 16-7 to qualify for IEM Rio Major. It was a great collective effort from everyone in the South American team, but the Uruguayan rifler Franco “dgt” Garcia excelled with an outstanding 45/10 K-D ratio and even won the final clutch of the series.

9z qualified for PGL Antwerp Major earlier this year and this time they showed the importance of having a solid structure. The South Americans changed two players after PGL Antwerp Major but still kept their tactical identity after the additions of AWPer Lucas “nqz” Soares and rifler Nicolás “buda” Kramer.

It’s not over for ATK, but they can’t afford to lose any more in the Americas RMR to qualify for IEM Rio Major as well. The third day of the competition will carry on with more advancement matches like Complexity vs. 00 Nation and elimination games like Imperial vs. Los + oNe.