The ‘Godfather of Counter-Strike’ Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo and his CS:GO squad Imperial have come up short at IEM Rio, exiting the squad’s home event in straight losses to Ninjas in Pyjamas and The MongolZ on day one.
The squad was a late replacement for Russian team Virtus.pro, who chose to withdraw from Rio after failing to qualify for the BLAST Paris Major at the Europe RMR. The delight of home fans, however, was short-lived.
Imperial was hammered in their best-of-one opener against Ninjas in Pyjamas 16-5 on Mirage, falling immediately to the lower bracket to face Asian qualifier The MongolZ. The Mongolian squad, who had just qualified for the Paris Major Challenger Stage, have been quite far from their best following the departure of Tengis “sk0R” Batjargal and were sent to meet Imperial after a 16-9 loss to Natus Vincere.
Ricardo “boltz” Prass was head and shoulders above the rest on the server in the elimination match, starring in Imperial’s 16-3 rout of The MongolZ, but the Asian representatives hit straight back on Inferno 16-12—despite a late comeback attempt from the Brazilians.
Related: IEM Rio CS:GO 2023: How to watch, scores, brackets, results
The series came to a head at the back half of the decider on Mirage, with The MongolZ securing map point at 15-10. But Imperial rallied, breaking The MongolZ economy and running back four straight rounds to threaten overtime. A well-stacked A-bombsite, however, in the final regulation round proved enough for The MongolZ to win 16-14, with FalleN left staring down the barrel of his AWP at the defuser.
The Rio loss caps off a tough fortnight for FalleN and Imperial. This loss follows the team’s exit at the Paris Major Americas RMR to EG and Complexity, meaning an icon of Counter-Strike will not be playing at the French Major.
“Our Inferno has been a little hit or miss lately, so [The MongolZ] were able to capitalize on that,” FalleN admitted in his IEM Rio exit interview, mentioning his Brazilian CS:GO squad was preparing to take a short break before receiving the hometown invite call-up. “We weren’t going to miss out on an opportunity like this.”
FalleN ended the interview on a light note, stating he is looking forward to meeting up with fans, supporting fellow South American reps 9z and MIBR, and will be hard at work preparing for the Rio show match.
That CS:GO show match will be hosted in Rio on Sunday, April 23.
Published: Apr 17, 2023 07:14 pm