The hope of witnessing a Brazilian team reach the final stage of the Copenhagen Major is slowly fading for many fans of Brazilian Counter-Strike. Yesterday, FURIA was eliminated, and today, Imperial suffered the same fate after a 2-1 loss to FaZe.

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Imperial began the Elimination Stage triumphantly by defeating Virtus.pro. However, they then endured a three-match losing streak against the tournament favorites, Spirit, Vitality, and FaZe, making it arguably the toughest path for any team at this Major to qualify.

Following their elimination, in-game leader Vinicius "VINI" Figueiredo spoke with James Banks on the event's official stream, offering insights into Imperial’s tournament journey.

"We had the belief that we could progress further. We faced the toughest opponents possible with Spirit, Vitality, and FaZe," VINI explained before discussing their match against FaZe today.

- We could have won if we had done some things differently or if had been a little more calm with some timings. But overall, we are happy with the progress. It sucks to lose, but we did an amazing run, and now it’s back to the grind, Vinicius "VINI" Figueiredo said.

[twitchClip:AltruisticBillowingHornetDerp-zApXHc6vW0ouvkcP]

paiN Gaming is the last Brazilian team left at the Copenhagen Major. They play Heroic tonight, where the loser will be eliminated.

VINI

Imperial

{cflag:BR} Fernando ”fer” Alvarenga - 1.15 rating in 2022

{cflag:BR} Marcelo ”chelo” Cespedes - 1.15 rating in 2022

{cflag:BR} Gabriel ”FalleN” Toledo  - 1.09 rating in 2022

{cflag:BR} Ricardo ”boltz” Prass - 1.08 rating in 2022

{cflag:BR} Vinicius ”VINI” Figueiredo - 0.97 rating in 2022

The hometown favourites. It’s no understatement to say that Imperial will be by far the most popular team at the upcoming Major tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Brazilian “Last Dance” squad, led by the legendary AWPer Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, have had massive backing and support from the Brazilian fans ever since the creation of the team in early 2022.

The huge fan support is an aspect which could help and elevate FalleN and company massively at the Major, especially now when all matches are set to be played in front of a crowd. Something that plays in when you are to consider the favourites of each match – the same can be said about their countrymen from FURIA, although they don’t hold the same popularity as Imperial.

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The signing of the 24-year-old Brazilian Marcelo ”chelo” Cespedes looks to be a very good pickup for the veteran team. By replacing Lincoln “fnx” Lau with chelo, Imperial has received a very potent rifler who offers a lot more firepower to the server than the ageing fnx.

His arrival + the support and help from the Brazilian crowd could make Imperial a real underdog at IEM Rio Major – maybe not to take the overall title in the end – but as a team that could upset a lot of profiled teams.

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FalleN

chelo

boltz

Few teams, if any, can be said to be as experienced as the current Imperial roster. With the average age being quite a bit older than your regular CS:GO roster, as well as carrying some of the biggest names in CS:GO's history on the roster, Imperial has plenty of experience to draw upon in tough situations. 

The experienced Brazilians of Imperial, however, did not manage to start their IEM Cologne campaign with success. A tough 16-6 loss to Outsiders meant that the Brazilians had to see themselves bested in their opening match of IEM Cologne Play-In. We talked with "VINI" after the loss, and despite the tough defeat to Outsiders he remained optimistic that they just need to find their "Major form" once again: 

To hear more from the always-optimistic "VINI", take a look at our exclusive interview with him after their game at IEM Cologne Play-In, posted down below: 

It was an all-Brazilian brawl when FURIA and Imperial faced each other in the opening round, and the teams decided to take this Bo1 to the PUG-favorite of Mirage.

"VINI" and "FalleN" were the only Imperial players with a convincing T-side effort, which meant that they had a really hard time winning rounds. On the other side, all of the FURIA players were doing a solid day's work. Noone was below double digits in the kill column at halftime which resulted in a dominating 12-3 lead.

FURIA had a much harder time gathering rounds as they arrived on the side of the terrorists. They did still manage to close it out as a result of the massive halftime lead, but a very solid CT side performance from Imperial gives us hope for them going forward.

16-9 (Mirage) | {cflag:BR} yuurih - 1.30 Rating / 19-13 K-D / 88.1 ADR

yuurih

FURIA

The last game of the Legends Stage had Copenhagen Flames face Imperial. Copenhagen Flames and Imperial faced each other in the very last game of the Legends Stage. The Brazilians and the Danes battled for the eighth and final quarter-finals spot in Antwerp.

Imperial's go-to map of Inferno kicked off the series, and the Flames on the CT side took advantage of that. Every single Flames player was playing at a high level, and  "Zyphon" was at one point 14-1. On the other side, the individuals except for "VINI" were really struggling for the first fifteen rounds, which netted the Danes an enormous 13-2 lead.

The Copenhagen Flames unsurprisingly quickly ended the map, and Imperial now had to battle from a ginormous 16-2 loss.

Copenhagen Flames picked Vertigo as the second map. It is a map that has treated them well in the past, and it is one of the weakest maps, if not THE weakest map for Imperial.

As the percentages suggested, the Flames got off to the best start. The Danes took a 9-3 T side lead before giving up the last three rounds of the half to the Brazilians.

Imperial crucially won the second half pistol round and converted the following. The Flames tried to push back with some wins of their own, but after eleven second-half rounds the Brazilians had tied up the game. All thirty rounds of regulation and more were needed as Imperial failed to take advantage of map point and the map went to OT.

After failing to convert on two map points in the first overtime, the Flames kept it clean in the second where they won all four rounds to close out the game.

With the win, the Copenhagen Flames claim the last available quarter-finals spot and send Imperial home.

[twitchClip:pgl/clip/DirtyFantasticFinchKappaRoss-bCVMMemThNpGYgwU]

Imperial - Copenhagen Flames 0-2 | PGL Major Antwerp Legends Stage

2-16 (Inferno) | {cflag:DK} Zyphon - 1.82 Rating / 20-3 K-D / 90.7 ADR

18-22 (Vertigo) | {cflag:DK} Zyphon - 1.41 Rating / 34-21 K-D / 90.1 ADR

MVP: {cflag:DK} Rasmus "Zyphon" Nordfoss - 1.54 Rating / 54-24 K-D / 90.3 ADR

Zyphon

Copenhagen Flames

With an average age of 28.4, the Brazilians of Imperial is the oldest roster at the major. But age is just a number, right?

Lincoln "fnx" Lau, 32, started his career all the way back in Counter-Strike 1.6 where he was played for household organizations such as mibr, compLexity, and paiN. In 2016 the rifler was hailed as the 19th best player in the world. The veteran has not been competing at the top level for a long time but has now come back to show that he still has what it takes.

Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo aka. The Godfather of Brazilian Counter-Strike, 30, is one of the most tenured IGLs in all of CS:GO. At the height of his career, he led the best players in the game, including his current teammates "fnx" and "fer" to many S-tier events wins, including two majors. His individual prowess with the AWP has also yielded him two top 6 spots on HLTV's top 20.

Fernando "fer" Alvarenga, 30, is known for his ability to always catch his opponents off-guard with his excellent aggressive maneuvers. With an opening kill rating of 1.12 versus top30 teams, he is ranked as the 11th best player of all time in opening duels. The impact he has on a team has earned him two spots on the HLTV top20, one as #3.

Ricardo "boltz" Prass, 25, the 18th best player of 2017 has been a part of the professional Brazilian CS:GO scene since 2014. He has been a valuable component of a large number of the biggest Brazilian rosters throughout the last eight years. He placed second at the PGL Major Kraków 2017 as a part of Immortals and won ESL Pro League Season 6 as a part of SK Gaming.

The last player on the Imperial squad is Vinicius "VINI" Figueiredo. The 22-year-old is most known for his supportive work in FURIA, where he played for more than four years and was an integral part of the meteoric rise they had in 2018/2019. "VINI" is by far the youngest player on the team, but what he lacks in wisdom he makes up for in skill.

Between them, these five men, who have not been playing together for much more than three months, have six MVPs, countless trophies, and more than 60 years of professional Counter-Strike experience between them.

The team is currently sitting at a 72.7% win rate, and are up 9-5 in maps versus other teams attending the major. The Brazilians have yet to test the waters on the other side of the Atlantic though, as they have only been playing against North- and South American teams since they came together as a squad and were picked up by Imperial.

Imperial will be without their coach Luis "peacemaker" Tadeu, who just a few days ago was banned from the event due to use of the free-roam spectator bug in 2018.

It has been a long time since many of these players have been at the absolute top, but now they once again have to show what they are made of!

A dream for many Brazilian Counter-Strike fans became a reality last night, when Imperial announced, that they had signed Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo and four other Brazilian stars to their new team.

The news broke out after a long time of rumors about the project. Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo is joined by Vinicius "⁠VINI⁠" Figueiredo, Ricardo "⁠boltz⁠" Prass, Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga, and Lincoln "⁠fnx⁠" Lau on the project with the two latter being part of the biggest success in Brazilian CS:GO history with two Major victories back in 2016 together with FalleN.

In December 2021, we talked with Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo about the project, which did not seem like a possibility at the time.

The reason why "The Professor" talked the project down is unknown, but according to a Brazilian journalist, Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo had received an offer from a "top 3" team in the world.

As a coach on the project, the experienced Luis "

" Tadeu has been brought in to support the new roster.

The superstar core behind SK Gaming and Luminosity’s Major victories in 2016 and 2017 could soon be reunited under a completely new banner.

A report by [link:{"url":"https://ge.globo.com/esports/csgo/noticia/csgo-imperial-faz-proposta-pelo-last-dance.ghtml?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter","isNewTab":true,"text":"Globo Esporte"}] and Roque Marques, state that the profiled trio of Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, Fernando "fer" Alvarenga, and Lincoln " fnx " Lau has been presented an offer from Imperial, together with their countrymen Ricardo "boltz" Prass and Vinicius "VINI" Figueiredo. 

The Brazilian media outlet state that the roster already has met with Imperial’s CEO, Felippe "felippe1" Martins, where negotiations for a potential signing happened. One of the things which could delay or cause problems is the fact that FalleN, VINI, and boltz all are contracted with Liquid, FURIA, and MIBR respectively - That means Imperial is required to negotiate with the aforementioned teams for a buyout. 

{cflag:BR} Luis " peacemaker " Tadeu (Coach)

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Rafael "saffee" Costa has been confirmed as a new signing at FURIA, the Brazilian organization announced this Thursday night. The 27-year-old AWPer will fill the void after the discarded Vinicius "⁠VINI⁠" Figueiredo, who were told that he wasn’t a part of FURIA’s plan going into the 2022 season.

- What a night, tomorrow I'll talk more calmly but for now I'm going to enjoy this moment... You asked for it and now FURIA-saffee is reality, saffee wrote on [link:{"url":"https://twitter.com/saffeecsgo/status/1479269285566586884","isNewTab":true,"text":"Twitter"}] following the transfer.

The powerful sniper has a big task in front of him, as he will try to fill out the shoes of the profiled Henrique “HEN1” Teles, who showed impressive levels with FURIA from his tenure between 2019-2021. Something, saffee’s predecessor, Paytyn “Junior” Johnson never managed to replicate.

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Despite being 27-year-old, saffee is a quite new figure on the top of competitive Counter-Strike, where the majority of the community first got eyes on him last year due to a phenomenal showing at paiN Gaming. 

The late bloomer led the Brazilian team to notable victories like DreamHack Open January 2021 NA, and were also a big part of their qualification to the PGL Stockholm Major at the end of the year.

saffee

Junior

HEN1

paiN

The rise of a new Brazilian super team could soon be a reality. At least if you believe all the rumours and reports, which have been circulating in the Counter-Strike community in recent weeks and months. 

One of the most exciting rumours is the story about the creation of a “Last Dance” roster built around the two-timer Major winner trio Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo, Fernando "fer" Alvarenga, Lincoln "fnx" Lau and joined by Ricardo " boltz " Prass.

A recent [link:{"url":"https://draft5.gg/noticia/vini-e-cotado-para-completar-last-dance","isNewTab":true,"text":"report "}]from the Brazilian media DRAFT5 can now inform that FURIA’s Vinicius " VINI " Figueiredo is being considered as the last piece in the puzzle on the already profiled roster. The report state that there have been conversations between the two parties, and that the deal depends on an agreement with FURIA.

The rumours of VINI joining the Brazilian quartet emerge two weeks after FURIA announced his departure from the Brazilian top team. Straight after, VINI wrote a [link:{"url":"https://twitter.com/FURIA_VINI/status/1463936176868450313","isNewTab":true,"text":"Twitlonger"}] about the exit and his situation.

- FURIA, through Guerri (FURIA coach), came to the conclusion that they wouldn't want to count on me for the 2022 season. Obviously, I'm saddened by the decision, but life as a professional athlete goes that way. My desire is to continue playing CSGO professionally, so at the moment I am evaluating all the proposals for my future as a player, VINI wrote.

If the rumours are true, the “Last Dance” roster will look as follows.

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FalleN, fer and fnx (the trio on the right) lifting the ESL One Cologne Major trophy in 2016 - Photo credit: ESL and Helena Kristiansson

The future is unknown for Vinicius "VINI" Figueiredo as he will not be a part of FURIA in 2022. This was announced earlier today by coach Nicholas "guerri" Nogueira. 

The news has come on the back of reports that "VINI" was in talks with Team Liquid, who will most likely be scrambling their current roster by the end of the season. 

The 22-year old rifler was with the Brazilian organization for four years, during which he was a part of the core that blossomed into one of the most feared American teams. FURIA have won seven events with "VINI" as an active part of the squad, but will be replacing him as they look to find a dedicated AWPer according to "guerri".

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If you are sad to see "VINI" go, you need not worry as he comments on his Twitter that his "desire is to continue playing CSGO professionally, so at the moment I am evaluating all the proposals for my future as a player." 

Without "VINI" FURIA will look as follows:

FURIA took the pistol round, but GODSENT were quick to bounce back with a forcebuy win and got into the lead by securing the next round. From there on, felps and company caused FURIA some troubles, as GODSENT were able to find their footing on the attacking. FUIRA managed to grab three rounds before GODSENT moved to the CT side with an 8-7 advantage. GODSENT’s delight didn’t last long, however, as they quickly found themselves on the back foot with a very strong FURIA attacking through the defense, going on to close the map out 16-11.

GODSENT – FURIA | IEM Fall North America

11-16 (Mirage) | {cflag:BR} VINI – 1.58 Rating / 26-13 K-D / 97.4 ADR

Triumph – TeamOne | IEM Fall North America

16-7 (Overpass) | {cflag:US} hate – 1.65 Rating / 25-14 K-D / 90.2 ADR

hate

GODSENT

Triumph

TeamOne

Group D looked almost but over as FURIA and Ninjas in Pyjamas clocked in for today's work. Gambit and Team Liquid had secured their spot in the playoffs with victories earlier today, and in the last match of the day, it was expected that NIP would do the same.

Judged from the first 20 rounds of the match, it looked like the bookmaker's favorite would seal the deal. Up 13-7 on FURIA's map pick, NIP had the match where they wanted it. But then everything crashed. FURIA went into lockdown on their defense on Nuke and won the next nine rounds in a row to win 16-13. A huge shocker for NIP, who had to win today's match to be certain of advancement. Tomorrow the roster face Gambit in their last game, and you do not want to go into the last round against the number two in the world needing a win...

So the Swedish Ninjas were forced to win their own map pick, Ancient. But like on Nuke, FURIA produced a stellar CT-side. Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato was the dangerman for FURIA, who really only had their Danish AWP'er, Nicolai 'device' Reedtz on fire during the first half. 11-4 was the margin, that NIP had to chase during their CT-side in the second half. And so they did. In an explosive second half with countless retakes performed by NIP, the match was suddenly all even at 11-11. A dramatic comeback from NIP, who found some much-needed momentum which was enough to secure them the map. A crazy match of course needed a third map decider.

Mirage started as expected. FURIA continued their wildly impressive CT-sides with another huge performance giving them an 11-4 lead at the break. This time it was the entire FURIA roster that chipped in on the scoreboard. A fact that made the job even harder for the Swedish Ninjas, who went behind 14-4 before putting in their first-round win in the second half. The deficit was simply too much for the Swedes, who lost the match and probably the possibility of advancing in the tournament. FURIA can be proud of their performance in the light of them having to play with their coach as a stand-in. 

With the victory, FURIA now looks into another difficult match against Team Liquid. A victory will qualify them for the playoffs at ESL Pro League. NIP will have a similar tough job to do tomorrow. They need to beat Gambit and FURIA to lose in order to gain access to the next stage of the tournament.

FURIA – Ninjas in Pyjamas (2-1) | ESL Pro League Season 14

16-13 (Nuke) | {cflag:BR} yuurih – 1.35 Rating / 25-18 K-D / 90.9 ADR

14-16 (Ancient) | {cflag:BR} KSCERATO – 1.56 Rating / 32-18 K-D / 108.6 ADR

16-9 (Mirage) | {cflag:BR} VINI – 1.60 Rating / 23-11 K-D / 94.5 ADR

MVP: {cflag:BR} Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato | 1.36 Rating / 74-44 K-D / 86.9 ADR

KSCERATO

Ninjas in Pyjamas

Today's Pley of the Day features an immense clutch by VINI who managed to take down three O PLANO player while being placed in a tough 1v3 situation. The 22-year-old Brazilian and his heroics helped FURIA secure the vital match win. 

Enjoy the picture-perfect retake of the upper bombsite on Nuke, where VINI displayed his strong game sense by killing LUCAS1 through the hud. 

You can watch the rest of the #POTD's from May right here:

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O PLANO

Furia annihilated G2 yesterday with an impressive performance to advance to the Quarter-Finals. The convincing win has put the Brazilians in contention for the title at ESL Pro League.

After the two first rounds of playoffs, the team ratings look like this.

Individually the Furia roster has also shown some great Counter-Strike. Two Brazilians lead the individual ratings.

ESL Pro League will resume on Thursday when the four group winners will enter the playoffs.

blameF

Jame

s1mple

compLexity Gaming

Virtus.pro

Natus Vincere

From flowers on Overpass to TVs on Vertigo, each map has a different theme and feel to it. The tournament organizers of BLAST have planned a battle between two of the best Brazilians in the professional scene to a game of CS:GO map knowledge. 

Can you guess the different spots on the screenshots faster than the pros? Take a look at the full Youtube video from BLAST and get to know a bit more about the smallest of details on the maps of Counter-Strike. 

coldzera

FaZe

AT IEM Katowice 2021 we got the opportunity to talk to both VINI and, the new American AWPer from FURIA about their experiences so far as well as their thoughts on how the adaption to a completely new system is going so far.

Paytyn “junior” Johnson debuted for FURIA in the prominent $1 Million tournament and helped the team to a 7th-8th finish. The American AWPer joined the Brazilian bootcamp just days before the start of the tournament due to passport issues, even though he had practiced with the squad from home since signing with the organization. Vinicius “VINI” Figueiredo still believes that the team was better than expected despite the circumstances.

“To be honest, the communication was quite good, we expected it to be a lot noisier and to miscommunicate some words. It was mostly me, junior and arT doing the talking to make things easier for KSCERATO and yuurih. I think we are improving a lot, we are taking English lessons and it’s been good.”

The American AWPer also shared his thought on his biggest tournament to date from an individual perspective, saying the play style has been the biggest change for him jumping into the squad.

“I’ve never played anything like it, it’s just all reactionary based. I also baited a lot more on my old team that’s for sure. There’s baiting on FURIA and baiting on any other team, because on FURIA you’re not really baiting, you’re just in an info spot just holding. It’s weird, it’s definitely something I’ve never seen before.”

FURIA’s next event is the ESL Pro League Season 13 which is scheduled to kick-off on March 8. junior also commented on what he has to do better going into the next event.

“For the next tournaments, I have to know my spot and how we play on every map. I’m not going to lie, I was quite a bit confused about what we were doing in our matches on Overpass. I think these next weeks before ESL Pro League are definitely going to be good for us.”

On paper, it might have looked a bit disappointing with an early exit before the playoffs at IEM Katowice for Furia. Seen in a bigger picture though, there could be something interesting brewing from the Brazilians. 

See highlights from Furia's run at IEM Katowice here.

IEM Katowice was the debut for the new AWP'er Paytyn "junior" Johnson. The inclusion of the American has changed the communication on the Furia roster, who now uses English to accommodate their new English-speaking teammate. 

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"junior_FURIA_rdawbp","originalWidth":1600,"originalHeight":900,"cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: FURIA"}]

- It is a process of evolution to change the language to English, but we are striving every day to improve, the in-game leader Andrei "arT" Piovezan told Maisesports.

[link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/brazilian-dream-team-coldzera-select-prime-six/","text":"Also read: The Brazilian Dream Team"}]

Furthermore, the team had very few days to work together with their new teammate before the start of the tournament. Still, they managed to take down teams like Ninjas in Pyjamas and FaZe, while coming short against the CIS teams NAVI and Virtus.pro.

A look at the stats for the tournament ranks Furia as the 8th best team during the Group stage, while Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato individually performed fantastically being the best player of all the teams that did not make it to the playoffs.

The next big event for Furia will be the ESL Pro League Season 13 starting 8th of March.

In this series, we take a look at the teams that finished 2020 in the Top 20 rankings. Today we take a look at number 6.

The previous year was a difficult year for FURIA, coming after a highly impressive breakthrough season in 2019 which placed them at the highest tier in CS:GO. It has been a year with up and downs, and a year that has been overshadowed by a critical regional-lockdown resulted by Covid-19. arT troops quickly proved themselves as the best team in North America, however, the Brazilians superstars couldn’t conquer Europe.

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KSCERATO was ranked #18 on HLTVorg's Top 20 of Players in 2020

In late September, FURIA grabbed their biggest triumph of 2020 at ESL Pro League Season 12 NA, taking down every opponent on their way.  The crushing 3-0 victory in the Grand Final against 100 Thieves, not only gave FURIA a solid $77.500 prize earning but it also cemented them as the best team in NA in 2020. The absolute star of the event was FURIA’s star AWPer HEN1, a player who throughout the tournament displayed an extremely high level of CS, averaging a stellar 1.29 rating over 20 maps.  

After having dominated the North American region, winning both IEM New York, ESL Pro League Season 12 and DreamHack Open Summer, FURIA set sails towards Europe to compete against the very elite. However, the Brazilian superstars didn’t manage to continue their dominance and supremacy on European soil. Strong teams as Astralis, G2 and NAVI proved out to be too tall of an ask for the Black Panthers, with their best result being a 1-2nd place at BLAST Premier Fall Showdown.

FURIA didn’t end 2020 on a high note through early exits at IEM Global Challenge and BLAST Premier Fall. Nevertheless, FURIA has demonstrated that they can be a top contender on the highest scene of CS:GO.

Their first tournament will be the prestigious BLAST Premier Global Finals which start on the 19th of January.

[link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/spotlight-top-20"}]

G2 weren’t able to overcome FURIA’s aggressive playstyle in a three-map series that sends the Brazilians through to the next stage of the DreamHack Masters Winter event, while Nikola “NiKo” Kovac and company has to fight it out in the lower bracket where they will face off against Astralis in an all or nothing match.

The Brazilians have now made their fifth win in a row and an absolute beast performance by Vinicius “VINI” Figueiredo was the biggest reason for their success today. The 21-year-old FURIA player ended the first map on Inferno with a rating of 1.95 and 31 kills, while also being the top player of the match with an overall rating of 1.33, 93.4 ADR, and a 64-45 score.

Despite the loss, NiKo shined on the second map of the series with 33 kills to end a close affair and tie up the series, which unfortunately didn’t spark a light in the G2 squad who fell off on the decider.

G2’s run at the tournament isn’t over yet and they will have one more shot at making the playoffs through the lower bracket in Group B against Astralis, who are now back to playing under the leadership of Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander.

G2 vs. Astralis tomorrow at 16:30 (CEST).

	30 days	90 days
Fixture count	0	0
Maps count	0	0

VINI

Player stats

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Legendary Brazilians create new team for FalleN's Last Dance

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FURIA confirm saffee acquisition

Sources: VINI to round off Brazilian “Last Dance” roster

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FURIA wins the Brazilian Derby

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