Details of the final day of action from the Brazilian city at the Rio Major Grand Final.
For a tournament that featured so many close matches during its 2-week run, Intel Extreme Masters Rio Major had a bit of an anticlimactic ending. Following the Semifinals, everyone was psyched about the Grand Final thinking the matches would be exciting and the series would, at least, go into a third a third map and hopefully even an Overtime or two. Instead, it was much more one-sided, and the pre-match technical delay was probably longer than either match. Nevertheless, a recap is in order, so here it goes.
Outsiders vs Heroic
It was not the final too many people expected, but it was definitely the final the two participants earned and deserved. Although Outsiders had played two Major finals while still going by Virtus.pro, no one other than Dzhami “Jame” Ali on this iteration of the team had ever been this far into a Major. For Heroic, it was a first for every single player, and although they had previously been to and won the final of an pandemic-stricken online edition of ESL Pro League, this was something completely different.
Game 1
Outsiders’ pick of Mirage began well for them as they got off to a solid 3-round start on the T-side, but Heroic were quick to bounce back with four of their own. After some back-and-forth that included another 3-round streak for the attackers, the half ended at 8-7 for the T-side, which was great news for any Outsiders fans.
Heroic’s attack began well, but they faltered immediately afterward to give their opponents a 5-round unbeaten run. They were able to take their own 3-round streak after that, but the damage was done. Despite the Danes’ best efforts, the CIS side emerged victorious with a scoreline of 16-12 as Pyotr “fame” Bolyshev and the aforementioned Jame led the way for the winners.
Game 2
With their backs against the wall, Heroic were expected to mount a strong comeback on their map choice of Overpass. Sure enough, they started well and even managed to pick up a third round on the T-side by the 7th round overall. Sadly, though, Outsiders went on an absolute spree after that to limit Heroic to just those 3.
Heroic began well on the CT-side as well, and it looked as though there might be life in the game after all for all of two whole rounds. However, Outsiders struck back immediately afterwards, and took four on the trot to close out the game, series, and Major. For the winners, rifler fame was once again rock-solid, but Evgeniy “FL1T” Lebedev was in smoldering form as he shot up to an HLTV performance ranking of 2.11 for the map.
FROM CONTENDERS TO #IEM RIO 2022 MAJOR CHAMPIONS 🏆#OUTSIDERS@JAMEPAIN @fl1tjocs @fame_cs@n0rb3r7_CSGO@Qikert@dastanakbayev pic.twitter.com/cPi02mnacU
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) November 13, 2022
Jame Gets MVP
For his excellent overall performance and visionary leadership, the cerebral leader and much-memed AWPer Jame was chosen as the MVP of the Major. Anyone listening to the casters and analysts noticed how much praise they heaped upon the man, and it wasn’t without reason. He wasn’t just in excellent form as far as shooting went — his strat-calling and overall leadership in the face of adversity was on a whole other level.
In-game leader, AWPer, YouTuber 👀
AND your #ESLProTour DHL MVP!@JAMEPAIN THE REDEEMER 💪#TheWorldIsYours
🏆https://t.co/jdlThuX6hV pic.twitter.com/9OWvh7OMCL
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) November 13, 2022
Money Matters
Of the $1.25M prize pool of the tournament, winners Outsiders received a whopping $500,000, with Heroic trailing far behind with just over a third of that at $170,000. Semifinalists FURIA and MOUZ received a handsome $80,000 each, while the reward for Natus Vincere, Team Spirit, Cloud9 and Fnatic, who were knocked out in the Quarterfinals, was $45,000 per team. The eight teams who failed to make the main stage but had reached the Legends Stage were given $20,000 apiece for their troubles.
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