Brazilian or not, every team that was supported by the crowd in the IEM Rio Major quarterfinals have gone through to the semifinals.
The crowd cheered for Outsiders and Heroic in the first day of the Champions Stage yesterday, Nov. 10, and they defeated Fnatic and Team Spirit, respectively. Today, in the second pair of quarterfinals, MOUZ overcame Cloud9, and FURIA reverse swept Natus Vincere.
The crowd-buff was easily noticeable in the FURIA vs. NAVI match. The 18,000 seats of Jeunesse Arena were packed and the fans repeated what they have been doing over and over when Brazilians are playing: chanting and making noise with all kinds of instruments. This even seemed to actively affect gameplay at points, as there was a round on Mirage in which NAVI seemingly couldn’t communicate in the clutch situation as Perfecto didn’t find the defuse kit to defuse the bomb in time.
In addition to the party inside the venue, thousands of fans crowded the outside of Jeunesse Arena and followed the games at the fan fest, despite the heavy rain that happened in Rio de Janeiro.
Moving forward, though, the number of teams getting support from the crowd will only decrease. The fans will cheer for Outsiders against MOUZ due to their passion for the CIS side’s captain Jame. And, of course, Heroic will not have any support versus FURIA despite the great relationship the Danes developed with the Brazilian community.
Outsiders will play MOUZ tomorrow at 12pm CT and FURIA will take Heroic at 3:30pm CT. The winners will move on to the grand finals, which will be played this Sunday.
