9z best FURIA once again in Roobet Cup rematch
9z have taken down FURIA 2-1 in the Roobet Cup Group D decider matchup, claiming a spot in the playoffs at FURIA's expense. With this win, the LATAM side are now set to face Russian heavyweights Cloud9 in their quarterfinal game.
The series kicked off on FURIA's pick of Overpass, a map that 9z had picked and narrowly won in the previous meeting between the two squads. This time, however, FURIA were the ones in charge of the map, stifling 9z's offensive efforts, with the LATAM squad unable to put together a streak of rounds until the very end of the first half as FURIA took a 9-6 lead. FURIA went on to secure the second pistol round, propelling them to a 13-6 lead. 9z began the slow and steady effort of narrowing the lead, but with FURIA only three rounds away, there was little to be done as the Brazilians closed out their pick 16-11.
With 9z now a map down, things looked bleak, but their pick of Ancient provided an opportunity to turn it around, which is exactly what they did. The LATAM side put up a staunch defense, shutting out FURIA throughout the first half to claim a 12-3 lead heading into their T-side. A pistol round win for 9z was enough for them to quickly finish off the map 16-4, propelling the series to a third map.
Despite the impeccable showing from 9z on Ancient, the team started slow on the decider map of Mirage. FURIA snatched five of the first six rounds to build an early lead, and while 9z eventually cut that down to a 5-4 scoreline, FURIA regained control of the half to finish their T-side with a 10-5 half.
While things certainly did not look great for 9z after the first half, the team managed to start closing the gap after snagging the second pistol round. A 1v4 from David "dav1d" Tapia Maldonado kept the momentum going for 9z, enough for the LATAM squad to claim the lead for the first time on Mirage. A half buy from FURIA put a stop to 9z's seven-round win streak, but they were unable to put together a streak of their own as the game devolved into a back and forth bloodbath. This dragged out into overtime, where in the end 9z finally closed out the map 19-17 to send FURIA packing.
9zFURIA| 9z |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 David 'dav1deuS' Tapia Maldonado |
69 - 53 | +16 | 83.9 | 80.7% | 1.29 |
 Lucas 'nqz' Soares |
62 - 36 | +26 | 65.4 | 79.5% | 1.22 |
 Maximiliano 'max' Gonzalez |
52 - 54 | -2 | 82.7 | 74.7% | 1.13 |
| Franco 'dgt' Garcia |
59 - 56 | +3 | 81.1 | 72.3% | 1.13 |
 Martin 'rox' Molina |
51 - 52 | -1 | 70.2 | 65.1% | 0.97 |
| FURIA |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rafael 'saffee' Costa |
60 - 54 | +6 | 66.6 | 68.7% | 1.03 |
| Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato |
55 - 49 | +6 | 67.2 | 67.5% | 0.99 |
| André 'drop' Abreu |
42 - 61 | -19 | 69.0 | 68.7% | 0.88 |
| Yuri 'yuurih' Santos |
48 - 60 | -12 | 67.4 | 61.4% | 0.82 |
| Andrei 'arT' Piovezan |
46 - 71 | -25 | 63.8 | 55.4% | 0.80 |
While 9z will certainly relish in taking down FURIA a second time, they will need to quickly prepare for their quarterfinal match against Cloud9, set to start tomorrow at 01:00PM.
