Evil Geniuses and Team Liquid won Round 3 High matches on Thursday at the Intel Extreme Masters Road to Rio’s American Regional Major Ranking event in Stockholm, securing their spots in the IEM Rio Major.
Evil Geniuses beat 9z Team 2-1 and Team Liquid defeated Complexity Gaming by the same score to complete their 3-0 runs at the RMR. Meanwhile, Arctic eSports and Infinity were eliminated after losing the Round 3 Low matches.
The American RMR continues through Sunday in a Swiss system format. Elimination and advancement matches are best-of-three and all other matches are best-of-one.
The top six finishers in the 16-team event will advance to the $1.25 million IEM Rio Major 2022, which runs from Oct. 31-Nov. 13 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Evil Geniuses opened their best-of-three match with a 16-5 rout on Overpass, but 9z Team pushed back with a 16-11 win on Dust II. Evil Geniuses squeaked out a 16-13 victory on Mirage to clinch the match. They were led by Canada’s Jadan “HexT” Postma, who had match highs of 67 kills and a plus-25 kills-to-deaths differential.
Liquid defeated Complexity on Inferno 16-9 before Complexity eked out a 16-14 victory on Overpass. On the deciding map, Ancient, Liquid prevailed 16-7. American Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski guided Liquid with 75 kills and a plus-25 K-D.
In the Low matches, Team oNe eSports avoided elimination by beating Infinity 2-0, winning 16-14 on Inferno and 16-10 on Mirage. Similarly, Isurus topped Arctic 2-0 by taking Inferno 16-9 and Ancient 16-10.
In the four Round 3 Mid matches, ATK defeated MIBR 16-8 on Dust II, paiN Gaming beat Nouns 16-8 on Nuke, FURIA Esports crushed O Plano 16-2 on Mirage and 00 Nation topped Imperial Esports 16-11 on Inferno. The four winning sides advanced to Friday’s Round 4 High matches, while the four losing clubs moved to the Round 4 Low matches.
Friday’s schedule:
–Complexity vs. 00 Nation (Round 4 High)
–9z Team vs. ATK (Round 4 High)
–FURIA vs. paiN (Round 4 High)
–MIBR vs. Isurus (Round 4 Low)
–Imperial vs. Team oNe (Round 4 Low)
–Nouns vs. O Plano (Round 4 Low)
American Regional Major Rankings event standings with won-loss record:
T1. Evil Geniuses, 3-0 — qualify for IEM Rio Major
T1. Team Liquid, 3-0 — qualify for IEM Rio Major
T3. Complexity Gaming, 2-1
T3. 9z Team, 2-1
T3. FURIA Esports, 2-1
T3. 00 Nation, 2-1
T3. paiN Gaming, 2-1
T3. ATK, 2-1
T9. MIBR, 1-2
T9. Imperial Esports, 1-2
T9. Nouns Esports, 1-2
T9. O Plano, 1-2
T9. Team oNe eSports, 1-2
T9. Isurus, 1-2
T15. Arctic Esports, 0-3 — eliminated
T15. Infinity, 0-3 — eliminated
–Field Level Media