Vitality stops Imperial comebacks, while Evil Geniuses roll over IHC

Zywoo and co. take down crowd-favorite Imperial

Imperial tried their best to make a comeback against Vitality today in the Challengers Stage of the CSGO Rio Major 2022, but the international team and their stars didn’t allow it.

Vitality claimed their first victory at the Brazilian Major after defeating FalleN and company with a 16-9 score on Inferno. For the most part, the game was one-sided, though the home-crowd favorites started gaining some wind in their sails after 16 rounds and began to mount a comeback against Vitality. Still, their efforts weren’t enough against ZywOo and co.

The first half was a display of pure domination from Vitality, who started on the CT side. In the first 15 rounds, they allowed Imperial to snatch only two, often outplaying their rivals individually and strategy-wise, gaining advantages in many choke points, like banana.

After losing the second pistol round, it looked like all was done and dusted for Imperial. But the Brazilian squad started picking up some wins, electrifying the home crowd once again. In the 24th round, Imperial found themselves in a three-vs-one situation, but their rival was ZywOo, who outplayed them one by one.

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That clutch allowed Vitality to close out the game a round later, though that wasn’t the only moment of brilliance from ZywOo in the series. The 21-year-old started the tournament strong with the most kills (25), most damage per round (88.5), most AWP kills (11), and most first kills in the game (four).

Evil Geniuses easily crush APAC’s IHC

Just as Evil Geniuses appeared to be in trouble against IHC Esports today, the rapidly resurging North American CS:GO roster rallied in their opening match of the IEM Rio Challengers Stage, securing the first win of the event for the NA region.

The match itself got off to a slow start following a brief technical pause, and EG’s run at Rio got off to a slow start after IHC erupted on their Nuke T-side. The top seed out of the Asian qualifier and the best team out of Mongolia, IHC took control of the map round after round with EG unable to answer, leading to an early 7-0 lead. EG finally composed themselves after a timeout, rallying back with eight straight rounds to close the distance and even take the lead going into the second half.

HC won a much-needed pistol round on their CT side that halted the EG momentum but only for a moment since an audacious force-buy put EG right back in the lead. EG showed the same precision that IHC had shown on their T-side, increasing their lead slowly and methodically as IHC crumbled on their CT side. 

EG responded to a 7-0 deficit with a stunning 16-2 run to end up taking Nuke rather decisively 16-9. EG’s two newest additions in HexT and neaLaN were exceptional in their Major debut, with CeRq delivering on the AWP yet again.

This mix of new and old EG talent continues to impress. The team went 3-0 at the American RMR event and came just one series against Liquid away from qualifying directly for the Legends Stage. For the relatively new squad, it might be considered a blessing that they got to knock the rust off on the secondary stage instead of in front of an absolutely raucous day one Rio crowd.The IEM Rio Major is just getting started. If you are interested in finding out more about CSGO betting, make sure to check out our page where you can find the best deals and offers available!