BIG edge past K23 to secure IEM Rio Major spot

Fatih "⁠gob b⁠" Dayik’s men won the series in overtime on Dust2, the decider map, overcoming a gritty K23 side.

BIG secured a spot at the IEM Rio Major after winning their decider match in the 2-2 pool of the European RMR’s Group B. They did so against K23 in a series that went the full distance and then some, with overtimes on two of the maps, including the Dust2 decider.

The Germans' gauntlet was cleared after victories over Sangal and Vitality in the best-of-ones, followed by series losses to ENCE and HEROIC. K23's elimination on the other hand came after victories over HEET and Monte and losses to Falcons and MOUZ.

BIG made it through the Swiss RMR despite missing faveN

Timur "⁠clax⁠" Sabirov and Vladislav "⁠FinigaN⁠" Usov got K23 ahead on the attacking side of Inferno. Five rounds went to the Russian squad before BIG, but K23 showed that they were in control of their map pick by taking a 10-1 lead. Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz and company finally linked three rounds late in the half, but lost the last round before the switch.

BIG won the second pistol round on the A site, completely shifting the momentum with an eight round streak to lead 12-11, but weren’t able to take it past the line as K23 woke up to win four rounds before BIG took it to overtime. One was not enough, and by the second K23 secured their map 22-20 off the back of a clax triple defending the A site.

K23 won the first pistol round of Mirage on the CT side, but BIG didn’t falter with guns in play to get ahead on their map pick. Nils "⁠k1to⁠" Gruhne led the way with 17 kills in the half and 102.7 ADR as the Germans hit double digits, 10-5.

FinigaN and his men didn’t give up on the attack, winning the second pistol round and bringing it to within one, 9-10. Back-and-forth rounds put BIG up against the wall heading into the late stages of the map, but the German squad held steadfast to win the map out 16-11 and force a decider.

Raijin had an impressive 85 frags in the series despite his team's loss

K23 won the first pistol round of a map for the third time in the series, but they were immediately contested in the following round as BIG won the forcebuy to start building an economy on the defense.Two B hits brought it back to 3-3 as the two brawled for dominance all the way to the half, which the Russians led 8-7.

BIG once again won a forcebuy after losing the pistols, regaining the lead early in the second half, a lead they held onto heading into the final stretch of the series. Up 12-10, a post-plant misplay by the Germans put their Major qualification at risk as K23 struck, but neither team could pull ahead by the 30th round.

Overtime was a completely different game, in which BIG dominated the T-side with three straight rounds, which they converted into victory in their first second half round on the defense to win 19-16 and clinch their spot at the Major.

IEM Road to Rio 2022 Europe RMR BBest of 3 BIGMatchpage 2 1 9th October 2022 K23 20Inferno 22 16Mirage 11 19Dust2 15

BIG	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Florian 'syrsoN' RischesyrsoN	78 - 55	+23	74.2	1.22
Johannes 'tabseN' WodarztabseN	75 - 68	+7	88.9	1.17
Nils 'k1to' Gruhnek1to	71 - 63	+8	73.5	1.14
Karim 'Krimbo' MoussaKrimbo	60 - 62	-2	69.6	1.05
Elias 's1n' Steins1n	57 - 66	-9	64.4	0.89

K23	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Konstantin 'Raijin' TrubarovRaijin	85 - 75	+10	85.7	1.15
Timur 'clax' Sabirovclax	66 - 64	+2	70.4	1.05
Bogdan 'xsepower' Chernikovxsepower	56 - 60	-4	62.5	0.99
Vladislav 'FinigaN' UsovFinigaN	48 - 70	-22	67.4	0.81
Daniil 'X5G7V' MaryshevX5G7V	57 - 74	-17	55.7	0.77

Group Swiss 3W - 0L Natus Vincere ENCE 3W - 1L Vitality HEROIC OG 3W - 2L BIG 2W - 2L Falcons Sangal MOUZ Outsiders 2W - 3L K23 1W - 3L Monte HEET Illuminar 0W - 3L FANTASY SAW Legends Stage
FaZe
Ninjas in Pyjamas
Natus Vincere
ENCE
Sprout Challengers Stage
9z
FURIA
00NATION
IHC
fnatic
GamerLegion
Bad News Eagles
Grayhound
BIG
Vitality

TBD*
Liquid
Evil Geniuses
Spirit
Cloud9
HEROIC
OG

* Liquid vs. Evil Geniuses will decide one Legends spot

Spirit and Cloud9 will play for another Legends spot

HEROIC and OG will play in a third-place decider bracket for a Legends spot

FaZe #1 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenHåvard 'rain' NygaardRussel 'Twistzz' Van DulkenRobin 'ropz' KoolHelvijs 'broky' Saukants Sangal #37 Robin 'ScrunK' RöpkeKornél 'kory' SzedlárLove 'phzy' SmidebrantCan 'kyuubii' AliCaner 'soulfly' Kesici Ninjas in Pyjamas #11 Patrick 'es3tag' HansenFredrik 'REZ' SternerHampus 'hampus' PoserAleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenLudvig 'Brollan' Brolin K23 #46 Timur 'clax' SabirovBogdan 'xsepower' ChernikovVladislav 'FinigaN' UsovDaniil 'X5G7V' MaryshevKonstantin 'Raijin' Trubarov Fatih 'gob b' Dayik Age: 35 Team: BIGC BIG #16 Johannes 'tabseN' WodarzFlorian 'syrsoN' RischeNils 'k1to' GruhneJosef 'faveN' BaumannKarim 'Krimbo' Moussa ENCE #18 Marco 'Snappi' PfeifferValdemar 'valde' Bjørn VangsåPavle 'Maden' BoškovićPaweł 'dycha' DychaÁlvaro 'SunPayus' García 9z #50 Maximiliano 'max' GonzalezFranco 'dgt' GarciaDavid 'dav1deuS' Tapia MaldonadoLucas 'nqz' SoaresNicolás 'buda' Kramer OG #14 Nemanja 'nexa' IsakovićAdam 'NEOFRAG' ZouharShahar 'flameZ' ShushanAbdul 'degster' GasanovMaciej 'F1KU' Miklas Sprout #31 Ismail 'refrezh' AliFritz 'slaxz-' DietrichRasmus 'Zyphon' NordfossVictor 'Staehr' StaehrLaurențiu 'lauNX' Țârlea Natus Vincere #2 Oleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' SharipovViktor 'sdy' OrudzhevIlya 'Perfecto' ZalutskiyValeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy Vitality #3 Dan 'apEX' MadesclairePeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenEmil 'Magisk' ReifMathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautLotan 'Spinx' Giladi MOUZ #9 Christopher 'dexter' NongDavid 'frozen' ČerňanskýJon 'JDC' de CastroÁdám 'torzsi' TorzsásDorian 'xertioN' Berman Vladislav 'FinigaN' Usov Age: 23 Team: K23 Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 535 KPR: 0.64 DPR: 0.63 HEROIC #10 Casper 'cadiaN' MøllerMartin 'stavn' LundRené 'TeSeS' MadsenRasmus 'sjuush' BeckJakob 'jabbi' Nygaard HEET #25 Audric 'JACKZ' JugAlexandre 'bodyy' PianaroThomas 'Djoko' PavoniPierre 'Ex3rcice' BulingeAurélien 'afro' Drapier FURIA #7 Andrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosKaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoRafael 'saffee' CostaAndré 'drop' Abreu Falcons #35 Nathan 'NBK-' SchmittAli 'hAdji' HaïnoussBryan 'Maka' CandaKévin 'misutaaa' RabierJordan 'Python' Munck-Foehrle Monte #49 Hristiyan 'REDSTAR' PironkovVolodymyr 'Woro2k' VeletniukSergiy 'DemQQ' DemchenkoJoel 'joel' Holmlund fnatic #19 Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonNico 'nicoodoz' TamjidiFredrik 'roeJ' JørgensenWilliam 'mezii' MerrimanDion 'FASHR' Derksen Johannes 'tabseN' Wodarz Age: 27 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 1973 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.70 Timur 'clax' Sabirov Age: 20 Team: K23 Rating 1.0: 1.01 Maps played: 419 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.65 Cloud9 #6 Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovTimofey 'interz' YakushinSergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovDmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovVladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov Bad News Eagles #32 Rigon 'rigoN' GashiSener 'SENER1' MahmutiFlatron 'juanflatroo' HalimiDionis 'sinnopsyy' BudeciGenc 'gxx-' Kolgeci Spirit #15 Leonid 'chopper' VishnyakovBoris 'magixx' VorobievPavel 'S1ren' OgloblinRobert 'Patsi' IsyanovIhor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov 00NATION #29 Marcelo 'coldzera' DavidEpitacio 'TACO' de MeloEduardo 'dumau' WolkmerBruno 'latto' RebelattoSantino 'try' Rigal IHC #82 Bat-Enkh 'kabal' BatbayarTengis 'sk0R' BatjargalTuvshintugs 'Annihilation' NyamdorjGaridmagnai 'bLitz' ByambasurenSodbayar 'Techno' Munkhbold Nils 'k1to' Gruhne Age: 23 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 0.99 Maps played: 1295 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.69 Evil Geniuses #22 Timothy 'autimatic' TaVincent 'Brehze' CayonteTsvetelin 'CeRq' DimitrovSanzhar 'neaLaN' IskhakovJadan 'HexT' Postma GamerLegion #60 Frederik 'acoR' GyldstrandMihai 'iM' IvanNicolas 'Keoz' DgusKamil 'siuhy' SzkaradekIsak 'isak' Fahlén Liquid #4 Nick 'nitr0' CannellaKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJosh 'oSee' OhmMareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis Grayhound #39 Simon 'Sico' WilliamsJay 'Liazz' TregillgasAlistair 'aliStair' JohnstonJoshua 'INS' PotterDeclan 'Vexite' Portelli