It’s Cadian vs Art to in the semifinals of the IEM Rio Majors 2022. Furia and Heroic won their respective quarterfinal matchups to move on.
Heroic vs Team Spirit
The first match of the day was between Heroic versus the young roster of Team Spirit. The first map, Vertigo, was one-sided with Heroic starting in the CT side. After losing the first two rounds, Heroic managed to win three straight to take the lead. Team Spirit focused their offense on A-ramp and Heroic kept winning the clashes to end the half at 10-5. Team Spirit won the pistols again in their CT-side but they failed to keep the momentum going, dropping the third round to Heroic. The Cadian-led team won 5 straight in their T-side to break the economy of Team Spirit. Heroic managed to close out the map in round 24 to take a 1-0 lead. The final score was 16-8.
The second map, Overpass, was more competitive. Team Spirit was on CT on the first half. Heroic dropped the first three rounds but managed to win the next five rounds on the T-side. They showed an impressive half on the offensive, dropping only 2 more rounds to finish the half at 10-5. With their tournament life on the line, Team Spirit responded well to keep the game close in their own T-side. They won eight out of the next 11 rounds to tie the map 13-13. But Heroic will not be denied. Defensive adjustments allowed them to take the next two rounds. Facing elimination, Team Spirit managed to win one more round to make it 14-15, a chance to push it to over time. On Round 30, jabbi found two early kills from Bombsite B to give Heroic the man-advantage. It was up to his teammates to take down the rest and close out the match, 16-14. With the commanding 2-0 win, Heroic moves on to the semifinals.
Furia vs NaVi
The arena was packed for the second match of the day between hometown-favorites Furia and NaVi. Furia is the only Brazilian team left in the tournament. With the entire host country behind them,
The match started with NaVi’s pick, Nuke. Furia started strong taking a 6-3 lead over the Ukrainian team. NaVi responded with a 5-round winning streak to take the lead. The half ended 8-7 in favor of NaVi. NaVi carried their momentum to their CT side to take an 12-8 lead. Furia managed to start a streak of their own after a few failed aggressive positions from s1mple. Furia broke NaVi’s economy and had a 14-13 lead after 27 rounds. With an eco buy, NaVi managed to defend an A execute behind SDY’s 4 kills. With the eco win, NaVi managed to get back to buy guns and close the map 16-14
The second map was Ancient. Furia had a dominant half in the T-side, holding NaVi to 5 wins. The Brazilian team got 5 straight wins from the pistols. They had an answer for every NaVi adjustment, starting another 4-round winning streak. NaVi had their own 4-round winning streak to start the second half on the T-side but Furia responded with a win in their first full buy. Furia went on to win 6 of the next 7 to close the map 16-10.
Furia had the CT side first in Mirage giving them the advantage. NaVi, historically, has been weaker in the T-side in Mirage. This showed with 4 straight Furia wins in the CT side. They ended the half with a 8-7 lead. It was in the T side that Furia surprised everyone. After winning the first two rounds on T, NaVi looked to dominate the half, preventing multiple rush A and B executes winning three straight to tie the game 10-10. One of the A executes finally broke NaVi’s defenses. From there, the Brazilian team never looked back with six straight wins to close the map and the match.