The South American mix of 9z took down Marcelo “coldzera” David and Epitácio “TACO” de Melo’s 00 Nation 19-16 today in the first round of the IEM Rio Major Americas Regional Major Ranking (RMR), despite being down 14-7 in the second half.
It looked like 00 Nation would run away with an easy victory on Overpass until 9z started winning rounds fueled by an impressive individual showing from Brazilian AWPer Lucas “nqz” Soares, who went on to finish the CS:GO game with 30 frags in total. The South American mix won eight consecutive rounds to reach map point territory before 00 Nation, and even though the Brazilians took the game to overtime thanks to coldzera and TACO’s efforts, they seemingly didn’t have the energy to stop 9z’s momentum in the extra rounds.