Cloud9 advance to Legends Stage with victory over GamerLegion

An elimination or progression game saw Cloud9 and GamerLegion clash, one team starting 0-2 and the other 2-0 in the Challengers Stage. With everything to play for Cloud9 were able to win and progress to the Legends stage.

For these two teams, their journey here could not be more contrasting. GamerLegion can consider their result an overperformance, as they were an underdog who had subverted expectations just by making the Major. Cloud9, on the other hand, came in as favorites, ranked fourth in HLTV’s IEM Rio Major power rankings before the event, and just squeezed through the Challengers stage after a slow start in Rio.

Coming into this match Dmitry “⁠sh1ro⁠” Sokolov was the highest-rated player at the event, he proved why in the very first round of Overpass with three kills as Cloud9 won the pistol round. The momentum didn’t last long however as GamerLegion brought themselves back into the game on the CT side. Through some big kills on the AWP from Frederik “⁠acoR⁠” Gyldstrand, and a beautifully executed play from Nicolas “⁠Keoz⁠” Dgus on Monster, GamerLegion were able to take complete control of the first half and their lead up to 11-4.

Now down big coming into the second half the weight fell on Timofey “⁠interz⁠” Yakushin shoulders as he found himself in a 1v1 in the pistol round which GamerLegion won. Despite the pistol round loss, Cloud9 claimed their force-buy and on the next round interz was once again put in a clutch position, but this time he closed it out. The Russians were able to use the momentum to get back into the game on their CT side, converting eight rounds in a row. On their CT side Cloud9 looked more like themselves, as they were able to pull back rounds even after losing a man advantage or losing sites. In the end, the game got extremely close but Cloud9 got the win, 16-13.

Mirage started similarly to Overpass, with CT-sided dominance. but this time it was Cloud9 who took the early lead. For the second map in a row, it would be interz put into an important clutch position and again he would come out on top, but after GamerLegion‘s resurgance, Cloud9 would only finish the half 8-7 up.

Cloud9 started off their CT-side determined not to get swept in the series, taking the first two rounds off their opponents. They took advantage of their economic boost and grabbed an 11-9 lead off the back of an impressive fragging display from Mihai “⁠iM⁠” Ivan. The lead would not remain there for long however as the game became tied at 12-12. The competitive game continued with each round going down to the wire as there was barely a thing to separate the two teams. In the dying embers of the second map, it was sh1ro, with the help of a flying one-tap from Sergey “⁠Ax1Le⁠” Rykhtorov, who was able to give Cloud9 the 16-13 victory.