9z made history when they qualified for the PGL Antwerp Major earlier this year and became the first CS:GO team with Argentinian, Uruguayan, and Chilean players to qualify for a Valve-sponsored tournament. 9z have only kept improving and can write another glorious chapter for South American Counter-Strike at the IEM Rio Major if they win one more game and qualify for the Legends Stage.
The team of Uruguayan duo Franco “dgt” Garcia and Maximiliano “max” Gonzalez, Chilean rifler David “dav1d” Maldonado, Brazilian AWPer Lucas “nqz” Soares, and Argentinian youngster Nicolás “buda” Kramer are currently 2-1 in the IEM Rio Major Challengers Stage following a hard-fought 19-17 victory against Evil Geniuses today. They were behind 15-13 and not only pushed the Nuke game to overtime but also took down their North American rivals thanks to a 3-0 run as the CTs in OT.