BIG’s miraculous defuse in overtime breaks 9z, helps push German team through to IEM Rio Major Legends Stage

BIG are the third CS:GO team from the IEM Rio Major Challengers Stage to advance to the Legends Stage following a 2-0 sweep over crowd-favorites 9z today.

9z had all the momentum in the world after they pushed the second map of the series, Dust II, to overtime after a great recovery in the second half. They nearly secured a point in overtime, but their spirit was seemingly broken after BIG’s rifler Karim “Krimbo” Moussa defused the bomb in round 32 with less than a second left on the clock. After that heartbreaking point, 9z collapsed and went on to lose the game 19-15 and the series.

All in all, BIG were the better team today against 9z in their 2-1 pool match at the IEM Rio Major. The German team completed the sweep on Dust II after destroying the South American mix on Nuke 16-4, which was 9z’s own map pick. The best player on BIG’s side was the AWPer Florian “syrsoN” Rischel, who got countless multi-kills in the two maps and finished the series with a 43-24 K/D and 1.55 rating.

While today’s loss was tough for 9z, it doesn’t mean that they are out of the Major. They’re now in the 2-2 pool of the Challengers Stage and will have one last opportunity to win a best-of-three series and advance to the Legends Stage as BIG did. The South Americans will have the support of the crowd unless FURIA lose today and somehow they face each other in the last match of the Challengers Stage.