One of the quarterfinal matchups at the Intel Extreme Masters Rio Major went according to plan. The other did not. The end result was MOUZ and Outsiders advancing to the seminal round, where they’ll meet on Saturday.
MOUZ came into the Champions Stage as the lowest seeded team after finishing eighth during Legends play. They figured to face a steep challenge against undefeated top seed Cloud9.
The challenge was indeed steep, but MOUZ was up to it, scoring the upset by overcoming a 16-11 loss on Inferno to win 16-13 on Overpass, before rallying to take the final game 16-9 on Ancient.
MOUZ was paced by David “frozen” Cernansky of Slovakia, who finished plus-10 with a 57-47 kills-to-deaths ratio. He was especially strong in the deciding match, finishing plus-9 with 21 kills to help his side overcome a 5-0 deficit.
Russia’s Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov was the top performer in defeat for Cloud9, finishing plus-24 (66-42 K-D ratio).
On the other side of the bracket, Outsiders, the No. 4 seed, took care of No. 5 seed Fnatic in orderly fashion, winning 16-11 on Inferno and 16-8 on Mirage.
Petr “fame” Bolyshev led the way in Game 1, scoring 23 kills against 12 deaths (plus-11), while Evgenii “FL1T” Lebedev paced the winners with 23 kills (plus-10) in Game 2. A third Russian teammate, Dzhami “Jame” Ali, had the best overall day, scoring 38 kills against 22 deaths (plus-16).
Fnatic’s top killer in the loss was Fredrik “roeJ” Jorgensen, of Denmark.
The tournament continues with two matches Friday, Heroic vs. Team Spirit and Natus Vincere vs. FURIA Esports.
Intel Extreme Masters XVII Rio Major prize pool:
1. $500,000, 4,000 BLAST Premier points
2. $170,000, 2,000 BLAST Premier points
3-4. $80,000, 1,250 BLAST Premier points
5-8. Cloud9, Fnatic, tbd, tbd — $45,000, 500 BLAST Premier points
9-11. Team Liquid, BIG, ENCE — $20,000
12-14. Sprout, Team Vitality, Bad News Eagles — $20,000
15-16. FaZe Clan, Ninjas in Pyjamas — $20,000
17-19. 9z Team, Team GamerLegion, OG — $10,000
20-22. Evil Geniuses, Grayhound Gaming, IHC Esports — $10,000
23-24. Imperial Esports, 00 Nation — $10,000
–Field Level Media