Thanks to the terrible format and seeding system used at majors, Vitality will now face FaZe Clan in Round 2 of IEM Rio after a loss to NaVi.
IEM Rio Legend Stage Openers were marred by near-impossible matchups caused by terrible seeding. Two sets of top-five vs top-five matchups in NaVi-Vitality and FaZe-Cloud9. Reddit will say Cloud9 and Vitality simply shouldn't have lost the best-of-ones. But anyone with some knowledge of the game's history can tell you, even the greatest teams of all time will lose a Bo1 to someone else. And the Round 2 for IEM Rio looks to be much of the same.
Since the Legends stage does not reseed teams and instead uses the Buchholz score from the previous stage, we continue to have terrible matchups in these later matches. Cloud9, who already bested FaZe in the opener, will now face NaVi. Vitality who narrowly lost to NaVi will be forced to play the best team in the world in NaVi. For these four teams, this major is incredibly unfair. At the same time that Vitality faces FaZe after NaVi, we have BNE facing Spirit and ENCE.
IEM Rio Round 2 Matches
Jumping right off that list are the aforementioned NaVi-Cloud9 and FaZe-Vitality matchups. Neither sets of teams have faced each other in this year, so the matches will be spicy. On the NaVi-Cloud9 match, these two teams played each other extensively in 2021, but ever since NaVi came on LAN, nafany's squad struggled to find an edge over them. Right now with NaVi's players being on point, even a good looking Cloud9 will struggle to win the game.
In the FaZe-Vitality matchup, FaZe is definitely the favorites. While they failed to close the game out against Vitality, they were 13-4 up in that game. They can easily bring the same form again against Vitality and with Zywoo not being in prime form, I expect Vitality to be starting 0-2 again.
Matches to keep an eye on
Heroic will face a Fnatic that is looking stronger with each match. Hometown favorites Furia will take on Antwerp Sweethearts Spirit, with both teams loving their explosive style of CS. Patsi vs arT will be a spicy duel to watch on stage. NIP taking on Outsiders will be another interesting matchup. NIP fell short versus Fnatic while Outsiders were outclassed by Heroic. Nevertheless you can never underestimate the Jame-led squad. Finally for all your 0-3 pickem hopes, BNE and Sprout take on ENCE and Liquid respectively.
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