Despite home crowd support, Imperial suffers through IEM Rio Major first day cover image

Despite home crowd support, Imperial suffers through IEM Rio Major first day

The Brazilian Last Dance lost games against Vitality and 9z playing at home.

The IEM Rio Major 2022 has begun last Monday (31) and it already had presence of crowd, who showed a little bit of the brazilian energy, mostly during the Imperial games. Still, the teams from the South American country didn't correspond to the people in the arena.

Imperial, the so called Brazilian last dance, suffered in tough matches against Vitality and 9z. The crowd did its part, but the team of Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo and Fernando "fer" Alvarenga weren't able to give to the people what they wanted.

ZywOo decimates Imperial comeback

In the first game of the day, Imperial went out against Vitality as, clearly, the underdogs. Still they had the people cheering for them as they had an advantage and for them to try to win Inferno. Well, Dan "apEX" Madesclaire simply didn't cared about that and commanded his team in a strong CT half with a 13-2 lead.

After changing sides, Imperial lost the pistol, but was able to bring the forced buy and won seven rounds in a row to give brazilian crowd some hope. But, then, a monster called Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut appeared in the 14-9 to win a massive 1x3 clutch and put an end in Imperial streak and, therefore, win the matchpoint.

Blackout against 9z compatriots

For the second and its last match of the day, Imperial went out against 9z, in a matchup that put the Last Dance squad as favorites. Well that was not what the crowd saw. In a game played in Mirage, Imperial simply couldn't bring rounds on the T side. Again, they saw a score of 13-2 with the changing of sides on the back of a huge performance of the brazilian AWPer of 9z, Lucas "nqz" Soares.

On the CT side, this time FalleN brought the energy back up by giving the crowd an ace in the pistol round. After that, they were able to add five more rounds, but 9z maintained its calm and won two rounds to put a huge load of pressure in Imperial. Brazilians won three rounds before going down much to the crowd's disappointment.

Their next match will be on Tuesday when they will play for their lives in the first Brazilian Major. At least, if they lose to Cloud9, home is nearby. In fact, this matchup gave the world a hell of a game in the last Major. What can we expect from this rematch? Anything can happen.

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