9z claimed their second victory in front of the Brazilian crowd, this time against Evil Geniuses. The South American mix faced a 5-10 deficit on Nuke ahead of the break, but managed to force Sanzhar "neaLaN" Iskhakov's squad into overtime before stealing the map 19-17. The secondary stream witnessed Outsiders's 16-12 victory over Vitality on Overpass, securing a 2-1 record for the Russian squad. The European mix was unable to run away with the CT side despite Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut's heroics, and struggled to challenge on the offense — sealing their demotion to the 1-2 pool. max's impact on the CT side was crucial in 9z's comeback on Nuke Evil Geniuses opened up the match on Nuke against 9z by taking the pistol round and guaranteeing themselves a small 2-0 lead. The South Americans remained competitive throughout the early stages thanks to David "dav1deuS" Tapia Maldonado, but as Evil Geniuses settled on the defense they extended their lead to 10-5. 9z were more comfortable after switching sides and strung six consecutive rounds early in the half to steal the advantage as Maximiliano "max" Gonzalez started to come online. A late North American resurgence forced the game into overtime, but the South Americans quickly swept through their CT side in extra time. IEM Rio Major 2022 Challengers StageBest of 1  Evil Geniuses Matchpage 17 19 1st November 2022   9z 17Nuke 19 The second 1-1 match hosted Vitality against Outsiders on Overpass. The European mix took the early lead courtesy of a triple-kill from ZywOo in the first pistol round, however, Dzhami "Jame" Ali's squad was never far behind. The Russians' late pushes into sites often caught Vitality off-guard and enabled the offense to grind out a slight 8-7 advantage going into the break. Despite taking the second pistol round, the Dan "apEX" Madesclaire-led squad was unable to seal the game and Outsiders's CT side slowly got back in contention, stringing five in a row. The B site push against the Russian force buy on round 27 devolved into a game-defining mistake for Vitality as they conceded match point to Outsiders. The defenders wasted no time and quickly brought the map to a close 16-12. IEM Rio Major 2022 Challengers StageBest of 1 Vitality Matchpage 12 16 1st November 2022  Outsiders 12Overpass 16 Group Challengers Stage 2W - 0L  Bad News Eagles    GamerLegion    MOUZ    fnatic  2W - 1L Outsiders     9z    1W - 1L OG   FURIA     BIG    Grayhound  1W - 2L  Evil Geniuses     Vitality   0W - 2L Cloud9   IHC    Imperial    00NATION     Dzhami 'Jame' Ali Age: 24 Team: Outsiders Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 1224 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.55   Evil Geniuses #21   Timothy 'autimatic' Ta Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov Sanzhar 'neaLaN' Iskhakov Jadan 'HexT' Postma   David 'dav1deuS' Tapia Maldonado Age: 22 Team: 9z Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 363 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.67  Outsiders #8  Evgenii 'FL1T' Lebedev Alexey 'Qikert' Golubev Dzhami 'Jame' Ali David 'n0rb3r7' Danielyan Petr 'fame' Bolyshev   Sanzhar 'neaLaN' Iskhakov Age: 22 Team: Evil Geniuses Rating 1.0: 0.93 Maps played: 1109 KPR: 0.65 DPR: 0.70  Vitality #2  Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen Emil 'Magisk' Reif Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut Lotan 'Spinx' Giladi  Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut Age: 21 Team: Vitality Rating 1.0: 1.27 Maps played: 1069 KPR: 0.85 DPR: 0.61  Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire Age: 29 Team: Vitality Rating 1.0: 1.01 Maps played: 2052 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.70   Maximiliano 'max' Gonzalez Age: 23 Team: 9z Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 604 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.66   9z #28   Maximiliano 'max' Gonzalez Franco 'dgt' Garcia David 'dav1deuS' Tapia Maldonado Lucas 'nqz' Soares Nicolás 'buda' Kramer |