MOUZ and Natus Vincere moved on to the semifinals of the Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2024 event Friday in Rio de Janeiro.
After losing 13-7 to Team Vitality on Mirage, MOUZ battled back with victories on Nuke (13-11) and Inferno (13-10) to set up a semifinal matchup against FURIA on Saturday. Dorian “xertioN” Berman led MOUZ with 54 kills and a plus-five kill-death differential. Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut had a team-leading plus-18 kill-death differential for Team Vitality.
Natus Vincere had a much easier time against Virtus.pro, winning 13-4 on Inferno and 13-11 on Ancient to advance to face HEROIC on Saturday in the other semifinal. Mihai “iM” Ivan paced Natus Vincere with 37 kills and Justinas “jL” Lekavicius had a team-best plus-14 kill-death differential in the win. Denis “electroNic” Sharipov led Virtus.pro with 31 kills.
The $250,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event began with two double-elimination groups of eight teams. The best-of-one opening matches in both groups were played Monday. All ensuing group matches were best-of-three.
The playoffs are a single-elimination bracket where all matches are best-of-three until the best-of-five grand final Sunday.
The winning team will take home $100,000 and earn an automatic berth into IEM Katowice 2025.
IEM Rio 2024 prize pool
1. $100,000, qualification to IEM Katowice 2025
2. $42,000
3-4. $20,000
5-6. $10,000 — Virtus.pro, TBD
7-8. $6,000 — FaZe Clan, The MongolZ
9-12. $5,000 — Complexity Gaming, Team Liquid, Astralis, Eternal Fire
13-16. $4,000 — Imperial Esports, paiN Gaming, 9z Team, G2 Esports
–Field Level Media
