The European Regional Major Rankings A (RMR) tournament for IEM’s CS:GO Rio Major 2022 has begun, and the opening match between Bad News Eagles and Eternal Fire was more than a worthy start to the event.
The game on Dust 2 went all the way to 30 rounds, despite an uneven start. BNE won the game 16-14, but they were close to throwing an enormous lead of 12-3 after the first half.
The Balkan team began the match on the CT side, which was impenetrable. The first 10 rounds were a show of pure force from BNE. Then, some flashy individual outplays from Eternal Fire allowed them to secure three rounds in the first half, which was a tiny glimmer of hope for the Turkish side.
Nevertheless, Eternal Fire held onto that and didn’t lose their head when entering the second half. They held a strong defense, and BNE made simple mistakes as if they were afraid to throw such a strong lead. At one point, Eternal Fire were up 13-12, and it wasn’t until gxx- and his teammates woke up and returned to the server. With everything on the line, they put their trust in individual performances and aggressively claimed four out of the five remaining rounds.
In the second opening game of the day, Sprout mounted a comeback against forZe by winning 19-17, after being down 4-11 at halftime.
With the first two matches of every RMR being the best-of-ones, the opening games will have a big impact on the teams who aim to start strong and gain momentum.
Throughout the day, both European RMRs will play out the matches of the first Swiss round.
