Bad News Eagles come back against forZe to secure IEM Rio Major spot

The Kosovar squad is the final Group A team to qualify for the Rio Major.

Bad News Eagles traversed the Swiss System with a 3-2 record, beating Eternal Fire and Astralis before besting FORZE in the deciding series with a 2-1 scoreline, guaranteeing them a Challenger Stage spot in Rio. They will now hope to repeat their fairy-tale run from PGL Major Antwerp, where the team made it to the Legends stage all the way from open qualifiers.

"It's the team spirit that brought us here, to be honest," Flatron "⁠juanflatroo⁠" Halimi said in the post-match interview. "We are known as a comeback team, we've done hundreds of them. When we get into that feeling of the game, we just know we're gonna fucking come back."

rigoN topped the board on Mirage with 28 kills

Meanwhile, FORZE will be disappointed after falling at the final hurdle. The Russian team found themselves in the 0-2 pool after losing the opening best-of-ones, and then came back with best-of-three wins against ECSTATIC and Astralis, only to lose the deciding series and bow out of the European RMR with a 2-3 record.

The series began on Dust2, with Bad News Eagles quick out of the gates to secure a 7-0 lead. FORZE proved why they picked the map soon after, clawing back the disadvantage to go into the interval just one round down. The CIS squad took the lead early in the second half and kept it throughout, closing out the map with a close 16-13 scoreline.

Ancient was another close affair, with the CIS squad dominating the defensive side of the map with the help of Aleksandr "⁠shalfey⁠" Marenov's 20 kills, to lead 11-4 at the half. Bad News Eagles fought back in the second half, and while Aleksandr "⁠KENSI⁠" Gurkin was able to momentarily stop the comeback with a quad-kill, the Kosovar team looked in control and closed out the map 16-12.

Bad News Eagles were dominant on the defensive side of Mirage, getting up to a 7-1 lead with no sign of stopping. They continued their relentless aggression across the entire half, going 11-4 up into halftime with Rigon "⁠rigoN⁠" Gashi sitting on 20 kills. A second-half pistol and following conversion put them ten rounds up, with juanflatroo and company winning the map with a 16-4 score to qualify for their second Major in a row.

IEM Road to Rio 2022 Europe RMR ABest of 3 FORZEMatchpage 1 2 8th October 2022 Bad News Eagles 16Dust2 13 12Ancient 16 4Mirage 16

FORZE	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Aleksandr 'shalfey' Marenovshalfey	54 - 50	+4	75.2	1.09
Aleksandr 'KENSI' GurkinKENSI	48 - 52	-4	76.3	0.96
Evgeny 'Norwi' ErmolinNorwi	44 - 52	-8	73.6	0.93
Aleksandr 'zorte' Zagodyrenkozorte	47 - 55	-8	59.2	0.87
Andrey 'Jerry' MekhryakovJerry	40 - 64	-24	61.0	0.73

Bad News Eagles	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Rigon 'rigoN' GashirigoN	64 - 53	+11	90.5	1.25
Genc 'gxx-' Kolgecigxx-	54 - 39	+15	68.7	1.16
Dionis 'sinnopsyy' Budecisinnopsyy	55 - 50	+5	80.6	1.14
Sener 'SENER1' MahmutiSENER1	54 - 46	+8	70.6	1.08
Flatron 'juanflatroo' Halimijuanflatroo	45 - 46	-1	74.9	1.06

The teams who qualified for the IEM Rio Major so far are:

Legends Stage
FaZe
Ninjas in Pyjamas
Natus Vincere
ENCE
Sprout Challengers Stage
9z
FURIA
00NATION
IHC
fnatic
GamerLegion
Bad News Eagles

TBD*
Liquid
Evil Geniuses
Spirit
Cloud9
HEROIC
Vitality
OG

* Liquid vs. Evil Geniuses will decide one Legends spot

Spirit and Cloud9 will play for another Legends spot

HEROIC, Vitality, and OG will play in a third-place decider bracket 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 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 OG #14 Nemanja 'nexa' IsakovićAdam 'NEOFRAG' ZouharShahar 'flameZ' ShushanAbdul 'degster' GasanovMaciej 'F1KU' Miklas Sprout #31 Ismail 'refrezh' AliFritz 'slaxz-' DietrichRasmus 'Zyphon' NordfossVictor 'Staehr' StaehrLaurențiu 'lauNX' Țârlea 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 Bad News Eagles #32 Sener 'SENER1' MahmutiFlatron 'juanflatroo' HalimiDionis 'sinnopsyy' BudeciGenc 'gxx-' KolgeciRigon 'rigoN' Gashi FORZE #26 Andrey 'Jerry' MekhryakovAleksandr 'zorte' ZagodyrenkoAleksandr 'shalfey' MarenovAleksandr 'KENSI' GurkinEvgeny 'Norwi' Ermolin HEROIC #10 Casper 'cadiaN' MøllerMartin 'stavn' LundRené 'TeSeS' MadsenRasmus 'sjuush' BeckJakob 'jabbi' Nygaard FURIA #7 Andrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosKaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoRafael 'saffee' CostaAndré 'drop' Abreu fnatic #19 Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonNico 'nicoodoz' TamjidiFredrik 'roeJ' JørgensenWilliam 'mezii' MerrimanDion 'FASHR' Derksen Rigon 'rigoN' Gashi Age: 23 Team: Bad News Eagles Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 418 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.73 Aleksandr 'KENSI' Gurkin Age: 20 Team: FORZE Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 586 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.63 Cloud9 #6 Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovTimofey 'interz' YakushinSergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovDmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovVladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov Bad News Eagles #32 Sener 'SENER1' MahmutiFlatron 'juanflatroo' HalimiDionis 'sinnopsyy' BudeciGenc 'gxx-' KolgeciRigon 'rigoN' Gashi Spirit #15 Leonid 'chopper' VishnyakovBoris 'magixx' VorobievPavel 'S1ren' OgloblinRobert 'Patsi' IsyanovIhor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov 00NATION #29 Marcelo 'coldzera' DavidEpitacio 'TACO' de MeloEduardo 'dumau' WolkmerBruno 'latto' RebelattoSantino 'try' Rigal IHC #82 Bat-Enkh 'kabal' BatbayarTengis 'sk0R' BatjargalTuvshintugs 'Annihilation' NyamdorjGaridmagnai 'bLitz' ByambasurenSodbayar 'Techno' Munkhbold Astralis #8 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethMikkel 'MistR' ThomsenAsger 'Farlig' JensenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderBenjamin 'blameF' Bremer Evil Geniuses #22 Timothy 'autimatic' TaVincent 'Brehze' CayonteTsvetelin 'CeRq' DimitrovSanzhar 'neaLaN' IskhakovJadan 'HexT' Postma Aleksandr 'shalfey' Marenov Age: 20 Team: FORZE Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 438 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.63 ECSTATIC #38 Jonas 'Queenix' DideriksenMarcus 'maNkz' KjeldsenCasper 'Cabbi' JensenBenjamin 'brzer' JensenTobias 'kraghen' Kragh Jensen GamerLegion #60 Frederik 'acoR' GyldstrandMihai 'iM' IvanNicolas 'Keoz' DgusKamil 'siuhy' SzkaradekIsak 'isak' Fahlén Flatron 'juanflatroo' Halimi Age: 25 Team: Bad News Eagles Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 611 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.72 Eternal Fire #20 Ismailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşÖzgür 'woxic' EkerAhmet 'paz' KarahocaÖmer 'imoRR' KarataşYasin 'xfl0ud' Koç Liquid #4 Nick 'nitr0' CannellaKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJosh 'oSee' OhmMareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis