One of the most beloved CS:GO squads in Brazil have punched their ticket for the upcoming Major in May. Imperial, who houses the Brazilian Last Dance of Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, Fernando “fer” Alvarenga, and Lincoln “fnx” Lau reverse swept Party Astronauts today in the 2-1 pool of the Americas Regional Major Ranking (RMR) tournament to advance to the PGL Antwerp Major.
It was too close for comfort for a part of the over 100,000 fans watching the action on Alexandre “Gaules” Borba’s stream. Party Astronauts picked Nuke to kick off the best-of-three series and imposed their own pace on both sides of the match to win it by 16-9 and start the series ahead.
The Brazilians were with their back against the wall in Dust II and despite some minor slip-ups, great performances from FalleN (24-13 K/D) and Vinicius “VINI” Figueiredo (23-14 K/D) fueled Imperial to secure the tie with a 16-11 victory. Imperial won the first half of Inferno, the final map, by 11-4 on the CT side, which netted them a great advantage to work in the second half. Party Astronauts gave their best and if it wasn’t for inspired plays by fer and Ricardo “boltz” Prass, they could have taken it at least to overtime, but instead, it was the Brazilian side who prevailed in the end and won by 16-12 to qualify for the Major.
This victory allows boltz, fer, and most notably fnx, who played only in the two Majors Luminosity Gaming and SK Gaming won in 2016, to return to a Valve-sponsored event. FURIA are currently the best Brazilian squad by miles, but the players on Imperial have enough fame to draw at least the same number, if not more, numbers of fans.
As for Party Astronauts, they’ll have to win their 2-2 match to remain alive in the Americas RMR and fight for the last spot that will be decided by the Play-In. Qualifying for the Major will be a tough task for the non-sponsored North American team, but if they pull it off, each one of the players is guaranteed to win a lot of money just off the Major stickers’ revenue.
