Vladislav "nafany" Gorshkov's men are just one win away from advancing to the Legends Stage. Cloud9 have returned to their expected level of form at the IEM Rio Major, keeping themselves alive in their second elimination series by seeing off Evil Geniuses from the Challengers Stage. The Russian side had their tournament run get off to a rocky start following overtime losses to fnatic and Grayhound, strong performances from Dmitry "sh1ro" Sokolov proving to not be enough to net wins in the best-of-ones. The 21-year-old remained a key factor in helping Cloud9 net their first win over Imperial on Tuesday, and maintained his stellar form against Sanzhar "neaLaN" Iskhakov's men, this time joined by both Abay "HObbit" Khassenov and Sergey "Ax1Le" Rykhtorov en route to a swift 2-0 victory. Cloud9 will need to maintain their trajectory from here and have all their players show up on the server in their final match of the Challengers Stage, where they are likely to face GamerLegion for a spot among the top 16. Evil Geniuses, meanwhile, will head home with their heads in hands after a rather lackluster showing in Rio, where they barely edged out a win over IHC in their opening best-of-one before dropping consecutive matches to MOUZ, 9z, and Cloud9. Cloud9 got off to a solid start on Dust2, converting a pistol victory into a 3-0 start on the T side before a response came in from Evil Geniuses. The North American-European combine began to climb back and managed to even the score at 4-4 following a pair of retakes, but were unable to gain the lead of the map at any point as Cloud9 swiftly regained control. HObbit and sh1ro secured multi-frags in critical rounds to keep their side well in the lead, and EG only managed to add one more round to their tally before the half was brought to an end. Evil Geniuses had little respite following the side swap as sh1ro remained a thorn in their side, another pistol round win for Cloud9 allowing the Russian team to immediately run away with the momentum of the map. There was no opportunity to fight back for EG and they quickly found themselves on the losing end of things, with C9 taking the victory in dominant fashion, 16-5. Overpass was equally as dominant by Cloud9, Ax1Le in particular stepping up with a strong individual performance after having a particularly lackluster first set of matches in the tournament. A three-round lead to kick things off by Evil Geniuses was quickly left by the wayside as Cloud9 assumed firm control of the proceedings, putting up an almost entirely impenetrable CT-side for the rest of the half and conceding just one round en route to an 11-4 lead. Cloud9 quickly moved up to 14-4 lead following the pistol round in the second half, putting themselves on the brink of a swift victory. EG dug deep and made a valiant effort to come back from the deficit, but were stopped before they could make things to close for comfort as Cloud9 attained match point before HObbit clutched a 1vs3 to take things over the line.Evil Geniuses
Matchpage 0 2 2nd November 2022
Cloud9 5Dust2 16 11Overpass 16
Evil Geniuses
K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Tsvetelin 'CeRq' DimitrovCeRq
33 - 32 +1 67.8 0.94 Timothy 'autimatic' Taautimatic
28 - 36 -8 76.6 0.84 Vincent 'Brehze' CayonteBrehze
20 - 38 -18 52.1 0.65 Jadan 'HexT' PostmaHexT
22 - 38 -16 48.9 0.61 Sanzhar 'neaLaN' IskhakovneaLaN
19 - 39 -20 50.8 0.54
Group Challengers Stage 3W - 0L Cloud9
K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovHObbit
43 - 25 +18 91.6 1.51 Sergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovAx1Le
43 - 25 +18 87.6 1.49 Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolovsh1ro
36 - 22 +14 88.2 1.36 Vladislav 'nafany' Gorshkovnafany
32 - 28 +4 80.7 1.18 Timofey 'interz' Yakushininterz
29 - 22 +7 62.9 1.07 Bad News Eagles
MOUZ
3W - 1L
BIG
Outsiders
2W - 1L
FURIA
GamerLegion
2W - 2L
Cloud9
OG
Vitality
9z
fnatic
1W - 3L
IHC
Evil Geniuses
Grayhound
0W - 3L
Imperial
00NATION
Imperial #18
Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo
Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga
Ricardo 'boltz' Prass
Marcelo 'chelo' Cespedes
Vinicius 'VINI' Figueiredo
Sanzhar 'neaLaN' Iskhakov
Age: 22 Team: Evil Geniuses Rating 1.0: 0.93 Maps played: 1111 KPR: 0.65 DPR: 0.70
Cloud9 #5
Vladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov
Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov
Timofey 'interz' Yakushin
Sergey 'Ax1Le' Rykhtorov
Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov
Sergey 'Ax1Le' Rykhtorov
Age: 20 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 989 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.63
IHC #47
Bat-Enkh 'kabal' Batbayar
Tengis 'sk0R' Batjargal
Tuvshintugs 'Annihilation' Nyamdorj
Garidmagnai 'bLitz' Byambasuren
Sodbayar 'Techno' Munkhbold
9z #28
Maximiliano 'max' Gonzalez
Franco 'dgt' Garcia
David 'dav1deuS' Tapia Maldonado
Lucas 'nqz' Soares
Nicolás 'buda' Kramer
Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov
Age: 28 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 1216 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.65
Evil Geniuses #21
Timothy 'autimatic' Ta
Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte
Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov
Sanzhar 'neaLaN' Iskhakov
Jadan 'HexT' Postma
MOUZ #9
Christopher 'dexter' Nong
David 'frozen' Čerňanský
Jon 'JDC' de Castro
Ádám 'torzsi' Torzsás
Dorian 'xertioN' Berman
Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov
Age: 21 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 1.22 Maps played: 916 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.53
Vladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov
Age: 21 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 0.96 Maps played: 917 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.69
fnatic #19
Freddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson
Dion 'FASHR' Derksen
Nico 'nicoodoz' Tamjidi
Fredrik 'roeJ' Jørgensen
William 'mezii' Merriman
GamerLegion #25
Frederik 'acoR' Gyldstrand
Mihai 'iM' Ivan
Nicolas 'Keoz' Dgus
Kamil 'siuhy' Szkaradek
Isak 'isak' Fahlén
Grayhound #41
Simon 'Sico' Williams
Jay 'Liazz' Tregillgas
Alistair 'aliStair' Johnston
Joshua 'INS' Potter
Declan 'Vexite' Portelli