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Bad News Eagles defeated BIG despite staring down a 4-11 deficit at halftime.

MOUZ took down Evil Geniuses 16-10 on Mirage to secure their place in the 2-0 pool of the Challenger Stage, building on their previous victory over Outsiders earlier on Monday. The European squad is now just one best-of-three away from reaching the second phase of the Major while Sanzhar "⁠neaLaN⁠" Iskhakov's men will be forced to play another match before challenging for qualification.

Meanwhile on the secondary stream, Bad News Eagles pulled off a comeback against BIG to steal the German's signature map of Dust2 (16-11) and secure their own 2-0 record in the Swiss stage. Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz's men previously had a recovery of their own against FURIA, but failed to show the same resilience against the Kosovar team, instead letting their own lead slip away.

xertioN was not intimidated by the big stage in Rio

MOUZ opened up the match on Mirage with a near-flawless pistol round victory, kickstarting a seven-round winning streak on the offensive side. The European squad was comfortably in the driver's seat the whole half, partially thanks to Dorian "⁠xertioN⁠" Berman's brilliant performance which netted him a 1.76 rating and a 16-8 K-D at halftime. neaLaN was the only shining light for Evil Geniuses and a crucial piece in the squad's limited success late in the half to reduce their deficit to 4-11.

The North American team started the second half in good shape after taking the pistol round, and Timothy "⁠autimatic⁠" Ta started to find impact. Despite bringing back the scoreline to 10-12, Evil Geniuses were unable to maintain the pressure, and MOUZ closed the match 16-10.

IEM Rio Major 2022 Challengers StageBest of 1 Evil GeniusesMatchpage 10 16 1st November 2022 MOUZ 10Mirage 16

Bad News Eagles started off their match against BIG on the wrong foot, failing to make any headway on the T side of Dust2. The Germans locked down the sites while Florian "⁠syrsoN⁠" Rische topped the scoreboard during a strong 11-4 defensive half.

The situation completely changed after switching sides as the Kosovars claimed the second pistol round to kickstart a fantastic 12-round streak to take the lead and steal the match. Bad News Eagles' CT aggression in the lower tunnels sealed the comeback and closed the match 16-11, bringing a great team performance to a close.

IEM Rio Major 2022 Challengers StageBest of 1 BIGMatchpage 11 16 1st November 2022 Bad News Eagles 11Dust2 16 Group Challengers Stage 2W - 0L Bad News Eagles MOUZ 1W - 0L OG GamerLegion Vitality fnatic 1W - 1L FURIA Evil Geniuses BIG Outsiders 0W - 1L Cloud9 Imperial 9z Grayhound 0W - 2L IHC 00NATION Evil Geniuses #21 Timothy 'autimatic' TaVincent 'Brehze' CayonteTsvetelin 'CeRq' DimitrovSanzhar 'neaLaN' IskhakovJadan 'HexT' Postma Florian 'syrsoN' Rische Age: 26 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 1761 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.63 Johannes 'tabseN' Wodarz Age: 27 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 1979 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.70 Outsiders #8 Evgenii 'FL1T' LebedevAlexey 'Qikert' GolubevDzhami 'Jame' AliDavid 'n0rb3r7' DanielyanPetr 'fame' Bolyshev Sanzhar 'neaLaN' Iskhakov Age: 22 Team: Evil Geniuses Rating 1.0: 0.93 Maps played: 1109 KPR: 0.65 DPR: 0.70 Dorian 'xertioN' Berman Age: 18 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 256 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.66 MOUZ #9 Christopher 'dexter' NongDavid 'frozen' ČerňanskýJon 'JDC' de CastroÁdám 'torzsi' TorzsásDorian 'xertioN' Berman BIG #15 Johannes 'tabseN' WodarzFlorian 'syrsoN' RischeNils 'k1to' GruhneKarim 'Krimbo' MoussaElias 's1n' Stein Bad News Eagles #23 Rigon 'rigoN' GashiSener 'SENER1' MahmutiFlatron 'juanflatroo' HalimiDionis 'sinnopsyy' BudeciGenc 'gxx-' Kolgeci FURIA #10 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: 1197 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.67