Liquid lock in IEM Rio Major Legends Stage spot

Liquid earned Legends status in Rio after a two-map thriller victory against Evil Geniuses.

Liquid became the seventh team to secure Legends status at the IEM Rio Major following 2-0 a victory over Evil Geniuses in the first-place decider at the IEM Road to Rio Americas RMR.

North America's best team earned a direct berth in the Legends Stage after a laborious series, which went to triple overtime on Ancient and another set of overtime on Overpass and saw both teams give up big leads.

In a heavily CT-sided game, Liquid came back from 6-14 behind on the opener to force extra time, where they survived three map points in overtime number two to clinch Ancient in the third.

On Overpass, even 40 kills from Timothy "⁠autimatic⁠" Ta weren't enough to pull Evil Geniuses across the finish line despite their impressive CT comeback from a 9-14 deficit. Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski and Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis pulled out some key kills once it got to overtime, dragging the series to its closing after a total of 84 rounds were played across the two maps.

IEM Road to Rio 2022 Americas RMRBest of 3 Evil GeniusesMatchpage 0 2 9th October 2022 Liquid 23Ancient 25 17Overpass 19

Evil Geniuses	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Timothy 'autimatic' Taautimatic	76 - 59	+17	91.0	1.27
Sanzhar 'neaLaN' IskhakovneaLaN	61 - 61	0	87.0	1.13
Tsvetelin 'CeRq' DimitrovCeRq	56 - 46	+10	63.9	1.04
Vincent 'Brehze' CayonteBrehze	49 - 62	-13	65.0	0.84
Jadan 'HexT' PostmaHexT	30 - 60	-30	49.6	0.66

Liquid	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Keith 'NAF' MarkovicNAF	67 - 50	+17	94.7	1.26
Jonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEliGE	64 - 60	+4	80.3	1.11
Josh 'oSee' OhmoSee	60 - 50	+10	74.4	1.10
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' GaļinskisYEKINDAR	57 - 58	-1	71.0	0.99
Nick 'nitr0' Cannellanitr0	39 - 55	-16	55.4	0.84

Only one more Legends spot is left to be determined in the ongoing series between HEROIC and OG.

Legends Stage
FaZe
Ninjas in Pyjamas
Natus Vincere
ENCE
Sprout
Spirit
Liquid Challengers Stage
9z
FURIA
00NATION
IHC
fnatic
GamerLegion
Bad News Eagles
Grayhound
BIG
Vitality
Cloud9
MOUZ
Evil Geniuses

To be determined
HEROIC
OG

HEROIC and OG play for a Legends spot

FaZe #1 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenHåvard 'rain' NygaardRussel 'Twistzz' Van DulkenRobin 'ropz' KoolHelvijs 'broky' Saukants Ninjas in Pyjamas #11 Patrick 'es3tag' HansenFredrik 'REZ' SternerHampus 'hampus' PoserAleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenLudvig 'Brollan' Brolin BIG #16 Johannes 'tabseN' WodarzFlorian 'syrsoN' RischeNils 'k1to' GruhneJosef 'faveN' BaumannKarim 'Krimbo' Moussa ENCE #18 Marco 'Snappi' PfeifferValdemar 'valde' Bjørn VangsåPavle 'Maden' BoškovićPaweł 'dycha' DychaÁlvaro 'SunPayus' García 9z #50 Maximiliano 'max' GonzalezFranco 'dgt' GarciaDavid 'dav1deuS' Tapia MaldonadoLucas 'nqz' SoaresNicolás 'buda' Kramer Sprout #31 Ismail 'refrezh' AliFritz 'slaxz-' DietrichRasmus 'Zyphon' NordfossVictor 'Staehr' StaehrLaurențiu 'lauNX' Țârlea OG #14 Nemanja 'nexa' IsakovićAdam 'NEOFRAG' ZouharShahar 'flameZ' ShushanAbdul 'degster' GasanovMaciej 'F1KU' Miklas Natus Vincere #2 Oleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' SharipovViktor 'sdy' OrudzhevIlya 'Perfecto' ZalutskiyValeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy Vitality #3 Dan 'apEX' MadesclairePeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenEmil 'Magisk' ReifMathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautLotan 'Spinx' Giladi MOUZ #9 Christopher 'dexter' NongDavid 'frozen' ČerňanskýJon 'JDC' de CastroÁdám 'torzsi' TorzsásDorian 'xertioN' Berman HEROIC #10 Casper 'cadiaN' MøllerMartin 'stavn' LundRené 'TeSeS' MadsenRasmus 'sjuush' BeckJakob 'jabbi' Nygaard Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis Age: 23 Team: Virtus.proB Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 1141 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.70 FURIA #7 Andrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosKaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoRafael 'saffee' CostaAndré 'drop' Abreu Timothy 'autimatic' Ta Age: 26 Team: Evil Geniuses Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 1191 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.67 fnatic #19 Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonNico 'nicoodoz' TamjidiFredrik 'roeJ' JørgensenWilliam 'mezii' MerrimanDion 'FASHR' Derksen Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski Age: 25 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 1651 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.68 Cloud9 #6 Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovTimofey 'interz' YakushinSergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovDmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovVladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov Bad News Eagles #32 Rigon 'rigoN' GashiSener 'SENER1' MahmutiFlatron 'juanflatroo' HalimiDionis 'sinnopsyy' BudeciGenc 'gxx-' Kolgeci 00NATION #29 Marcelo 'coldzera' DavidEpitacio 'TACO' de MeloEduardo 'dumau' WolkmerBruno 'latto' RebelattoSantino 'try' Rigal Spirit #15 Leonid 'chopper' VishnyakovBoris 'magixx' VorobievPavel 'S1ren' OgloblinRobert 'Patsi' IsyanovIhor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov IHC #82 Bat-Enkh 'kabal' BatbayarTengis 'sk0R' BatjargalTuvshintugs 'Annihilation' NyamdorjGaridmagnai 'bLitz' ByambasurenSodbayar 'Techno' Munkhbold Evil Geniuses #22 Timothy 'autimatic' TaVincent 'Brehze' CayonteTsvetelin 'CeRq' DimitrovSanzhar 'neaLaN' IskhakovJadan 'HexT' Postma GamerLegion #60 Frederik 'acoR' GyldstrandMihai 'iM' IvanNicolas 'Keoz' DgusKamil 'siuhy' SzkaradekIsak 'isak' Fahlén Liquid #4 Nick 'nitr0' CannellaKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJosh 'oSee' OhmMareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis Grayhound #39 Simon 'Sico' WilliamsJay 'Liazz' TregillgasAlistair 'aliStair' JohnstonJoshua 'INS' PotterDeclan 'Vexite' Portelli