Team Liquid earned first place at the Intel Extreme Masters Road to Rio’s American Regional Major Ranking, and Imperial Esports pulled out the sixth and final available berth into the IEM Rio Major on Sunday in Stockholm.
Liquid needed overtime on two maps to vanquish Evil Geniuses 2-0 in the first-place tiebreaker match, while Imperial won two straight tiebreakers to climb into sixth place.
The top six finishers in the 16-team event advanced to the $1.25 million IEM Rio Major 2022, which runs from Oct. 31-Nov. 13 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The American RMR utilized a Swiss system format. Elimination and advancement matches were best-of-three and all other matches were best-of-one.
By defeating Evil Geniuses, Team Liquid ensured it would begin the IEM Rio Major in the Legends Stage, earning a bye through the Challenger Stage.
Liquid beat Evil Geniuses 25-23 on Ancient and 19-17 on Overpass. Keith “NAF” Markovic of Canada led Liquid with 67 kills on a plus-17 kills-to-deaths differential. American Timothy “automatic” Ta of Evil Geniuses led all players with 76 kills on a plus-17 K-D.
Imperial, an all-Brazilian squad, began the day in the eighth-place match against paiN Gaming and won 2-0, prevailing 16-14 on Vertigo and 19-16 on Overpass. Marcelo “chelo” Cespedes had 59 kills on a plus-11 K-D and Imperial teammate Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo added 51 kills on a plus-14.
That win banished paiN to eighth place and moved Imperial into the sixth-place match against Complexity Gaming. Imperial won 16-13 on Inferno before Complexity countered with a 16-11 triumph on Nuke.
The deciding map, Overpass, required multiple overtimes before Imperial eked out the 22-20 victory to punch their ticket to Rio. FalleN had a match-high plus-19 K-D with 71 kills while chelo led the kills category (79) and had a plus-17.
American Regional Major Rankings event standings with won-loss record:
1. Team Liquid, 3-0 — qualify for IEM Rio Major (Legend Status)
2. Evil Geniuses, 3-0 — qualify for IEM Rio Major (Challenger Status)
3. 9z Team, 3-1 — qualify for IEM Rio Major (Challenger Status)
4. 00 Nation, 3-1 — qualify for IEM Rio Major (Contender Status)
5. FURIA Esports, 3-1 — qualify for IEM Rio Major (Contender Status)
6. Imperial Esports, 3-2 — qualify for IEM Rio Major (Contender Status)
7 Complexity Gaming, 3-2 — eliminated
8. paiN Gaming, 3-2 — eliminated
T9. Nouns Esports, 2-3 — eliminated
T9. ATK, 2-3 — eliminated
T9. Isurus, 2-3 — eliminated
T12. MIBR, 1-3 — eliminated
T12. O Plano, 1-3 — eliminated
T12. Team oNe eSports, 1-3 — eliminated
T15. Arctic Esports, 0-3 — eliminated
T15. Infinity, 0-3 — eliminated
–Field Level Media