G2 and 1WIN faced off in the third Swiss round of the tournament on Ancient. While that is one of G2’s favored maps, they were dealt a 16-13 defeat on this occasion.?

?G2 are now only one match away from being eliminated from the Europe RMR A and losing out on a spot in the 2022 IEM Rio Major. The franchise will need to win two best-of-three matches in order to earn a place in the Major.? ?

The European super team had an amazing start to the match, and out of the first 11 rounds, G2 secured eight wins. Their opponents seemed to come alive at that point and started landing wins of their own on the T side. Despite this, G2 ended the first half of the map in the lead with a 9-6 score.? ?

In the second half of Ancient, G2 had difficulty breaking through 1WIN’s defense despite their second pistol win. They performed subpar executes while hitting the A site due to their lack of confidence and the lack of coordination between the players.?

?In contrast, 1WIN seemed to produce intensely accurate shots and moved up to the lead on the map. Although G2 players tried to put up a fight, their Russian opponents seemed too much to handle.? ?

Nikola “NiKo” Kova? executed a clutch in round 22, but 1WIN went on to claim victory over G2. The winning team’s most notable player was Igor “?lollipop21k?” Solodkov, who ended the map with 26 kills.?

?Other teams in the 1-2 bracket with G2 include prominent squads like Astralis and Fnatic, who had earlier lost their best-of-one matches against Bad New Eagles and B8 Esports, respectively. The three teams will each need to secure two best-of-three wins in order to make the trip to Rio de Janeiro at the end of the month.

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The event was the first time fans of NiP had seen them in action since September 4 in ESL Pro League Season 16. The Swedish team��s next game in the RMR will take place on Wednesday against Bad News Eagles, where NiP are $1.41 favourites with esports betting sites.

The match against Astralis saw Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen, NiP��s new in-game leader, make his debut on the team. After he was signed on, the captain replaced Nicolas “Plopski” Gonzalez in the team��s lineup and took the reins of the in-game leadership from Hampus “hampus” Poser. His introduction to the team also saw NiP switch their in-game communication from Swedish to English, while Fredrik “REZ” Sterner moved from rifler to primary AWP.

While Aleksib boasts an impressive track record, it is not certain if the Finnish captain will be enough to help NiP qualify for the IEM Rio Major. Still, the in-game leader produced a 1.37 rating as well as a 24-20 K-D in the match against Astralis. Aleksib also recorded a kill count of 24 with a 100.8 ADR.

Those numbers put Aleksib second only to hampus, who was particularly impressive in his first outing since relinquishing his in-game leadership role. He averaged a 1.68 rating and dropped 30 kills across the map. He also closed the match with an amazing 30-15 K/D and a 117 ADR.

READ: Friday��s IEM Road to Rio Asia RMR best bets

Playing on Nuke, the two sides kicked things off with several round wins each. By the first half’s midpoint, the score had reached a 4-4 tie. Despite the close start, by the end of their CT side, NiP racked up more rounds and closed the map half with a 10-5 win.

Astralis started the second half of the map strong and scored enough rounds to tie with NiP. The Swedish team did not let up, however, and won five consecutive rounds, reaching match point at 15-10. Astralis attempted to stall their opponent��s fast-approaching win; however, NiP closed Nuke at 16-12 after moving up to the A site during the 28th round and reaching the 1-0 pool.

Besides hampus and Aleksib, NiP��s Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin was also an integral part of their win. The player recorded 24 frags, the same as Aleksib. The only NiP players to finish with negative ratings were Patrick “es3tag” Hansen and REZ.

Astralis came into the IEM Rio Major RMR without their star player, Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke, after he suffered a fractured ankle. They brought in Mikkel “MistR” Thomsen, the team��s academy player, as a stand-in for the tournament. The player had some noticeable struggles in his new role and only averaged a 0.75 rating. MistR also produced the overall lowest number of frags in the match (11).

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?The IEM Rio European RMR A kicks off with a clash between Bad News Eagles and Eternal Fire, who last met during the Challengers Stage of Antwerp Major in May when Bad News Eagles won (16-14). The Kosovar squad finished the Major in 15th-16th place, while Eternal Fire had to settle for 20th-22nd with just one win against Renegades.

Bad News Eagles have since attended five tournaments and achieved some success, finishing REPUBLEAGUE Season 3 in third, Elisa Invitational Spring 2022 as runners-up, and winning Tipsport Cup Prague 2022 two weeks ago. But even though Bad News Eagles have been winning games, they haven��t faced any tough opponents.

Eternal Fire disappointed at ESL Pro League Season 16 last month when they finished the event in 17th-20th place, but the Turkish CS:GO superteam bounced back and won TWR Eastern European Masters Fall 2022 by beating the likes of MOUZ and SINNERS Esports. Moreover, EF recently won against Team Liquid, and they didn��t perform too poorly in their defeats against FURIA (1-2) and Cloud9 (0-2).

Comparing the two teams, there is no reason to have one favoured over the other. Bad News Eagles achieved a lot five months ago, but recently they have been struggling against teams weaker than Eternal Fire. At evens or better, Eternal Fire are a good bet.

?Cloud9 are heavily favoured to defeat B8, and that��s fair. This is an elite team facing a tier-two squad which has never played against a squad ranked in the top 10. That might not mean much, knowing that even the best CS:GO teams can slip, but the chances of B8 outperforming Cloud9 are slim to none.

Cloud9 have yet to find the success they were hoping for, but that��s not to say that the ex-Gambit Esports roster hasn��t achieved a lot. In June they placed top four at Roobet Cup, then slipped at Intel Extreme Masters Cologne, but bounced back with a semifinals appearance at ESL Pro League Season 16.

But despite not winning a single gold medal, Cloud9 are still 14-5 since the start of June, and their only defeats in that run came against BIG (0-2), Astralis (0-2), and Team Liquid (0-2, 0-2, 1-2). Cloud9 are known to struggle on LAN, but the quality gap should be enough for a comfortable victory.

?Aurora qualifying for European RMR A would indicate that this is a solid team, but realistically, they had it easy. During the first open qualifiers, Aurora defeated Anonymo Esports (16-12), Monte (22-20), and Astralis (16-11), showing a strange mix of results.

They struggled against Monte and needed overtime to edge out a win, yet Aurora defeated Astralis. Still, we have to note that Astralis, in their current state, aren��t the most consistent team, so it was more the Danes choking rather than Aurora showing anything remarkable.

Fnatic might not be an elite squad, but they have been playing better lately and have a realistic chance to qualify for the Rio Major. In September, they finished ESL Pro League Season 16 in 9th-12th place, which isn��t that bad considering their only defeats came against Natus Vincere (1-2) and the two ESL Pro League finalists in Team Vitality (1-2) and Team Liquid (1-2).

If you��re winning maps against some of the world��s top teams, then you have to be doing something right, but until Fnatic start collecting trophies, they will remain underrated. This is a best-of-one match, so anything can happen, but it is Fnatic��s to lose.

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?The lineup includes young players like Aleksandr “?KaiR0N-?” Anashkin and Evgeny “?delus1onn?” Plottsov, both of whom played for VP.Prodigy and Team Spirit Academy, respectively. KaiR0N was Team Spirit Academy��s star player during his stint on the team. ?

?Veteran player Amin “?sugaR?” Azimov was also announced as part of the team��s roster. The player was a part of the European RMR during the last Antwerp Major.? ?

Aurora also listed former Entropiq player Viktor “?Lack1?” Boldyrev as part of their roster. The player is famous for his success during his time with the Czech team. In his yearlong stint with Entropiq, the team rose to ninth in the world rankings, and during the PGL Major Stockholm they finished in 9�C11th place.?

?Artem “?RAiLWAY?” Gradovich will continue in his role as Aurora��s in-game leader, while veteran Sergey “?starix?” Ischuk will carry on as the squad’s head coach. Evgeny “?bullet?” Batkin will be the team��s assistant coach for the upcoming event. Delus1onn is the team’s dedicated sniper, with KaiR0N, Lack1, and sugaR occasionally taking on rifling duties.? ?

Starix is a well-known name in the esports community as a result of his stint in Natus Vincere during Counter-Strike 1.6 as well as CS:GO. He was also NaVi��s coach from 2015 to 2017.? ?However, in 2020, the Aurora coach was suspended along with 36 other CS:GO coaches by the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC). The coaches were accused of taking advantage of the CS:GO spectator coaching bug.? ?

The 34-year-old was not allowed to participate in competitive esports for 10 months, and, as a result, he was unable to partake in two CS:GO Majors. The PGL Antwerp Major in May signaled the end of starix��s ban, and the player was allowed to participate in the Valve-sponsored events.
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Aurora brought the roster together at the start of August in time for the Rio Major��s first set of qualifiers. In the first open qualifiers, the team nabbed a spot in the European RMR set to take place in October.? ?The Turkish team pulled off an upset during their round-of-16 match against Astralis.

Aurora went on to play against teams like Monte and then the BLUEJAYS in the quarter-finals.? ?The team defeated BLUEJAYS in a reverse sweep, which earned them their spot in the European RMR. The European RMR will see Aurora compete alongside 15 other CS:GO squads in order to qualify for the November IEM Rio Major.

?At the moment, Aurora are competing in an online CS:GO event in Europe, the CCT Central Europe Series 1. Their next match will be against 1WIN in the round of 16 on Friday, September 2. Aurora are pegged as outsiders on GG Bet at odds of $2.04, with 1WIN as $1.74 favorites.

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The d00m squad consists of Counter Strike: Global Offensive players Patrik “?f0rest?” Lindberg, Adam Friberg and their lead ?GeT_RiGhT?. However, to round out the d00m roster to a 5-man squad, they have brought on former NiP, Fnatic, and Dignitas rifler Jonas “Lekr0” Olofsson and former Fnatic AWPer Jack “Jackinho” Strom Mattsson.

F0rest, Friberg, and Lekr0 have not participated in any professional match since June 2022, which was the month that Dignitas terminated its entire CS:GO division, and Jackinho was last seen competing for Ninja in Pyjamas academy, Young Ninjas, sometime between the months of July and August.

With Ninjas in Pyjamas in 2012, the Swedish trio GeT RiGhT, f0rest, and friberg made their debuts in the CS: GO scene alongside Richard “Xizt” Landstr?m and Robin “Fifflaren” Johansson. After playing together for Dignitas in 2020, the three former members of Ninjas in Pyjamas, who were known for their dominance in the early days of CS:GO and for their 87-0 map victory streak on LAN during the years 2012 and 2013, have reunited.

It is also important to note that they are the first team in the history of esports to have ever reached the grand finals of five consecutive major tournaments, a sequence that culminated with the Swedish squad winning ESL One Cologne in 2014.

And after 10 years, only a very few players have been able to equal the legacies of GeT RiGhT, friberg, and f0rest. The three players are among the most well-known people who have ever competed in CS:GO since they have won a staggering number of awards, recognition, and trophies in the game.

The five-member team will be competing in the open qualifiers held in Europe in the lead-up to the next Major, which will be held in Rio. After that, the teams that have qualified will compete against each other at the Regional Major Rankings for their respective regions, together with the teams that placed in the top 16 at the PGL Major Antwerp. A combined total of sixteen slots at IEM Rio are up for grabs at the European RMR tournaments.

After being benched in 2020, GeT RiGhT, who has since shifted his focus to creating content for the CS:GO community, will stream the entirety of the campaign on his Twitch channel.

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