fnatic squash Latin American dreams

fnatic have taken down South American squad 9z in a close 2-0 victory to make their way to the Legends Stage. 9z's loss to the Europeans mean that FURIA and Liquid are the sole Americas representatives in the Legends Stage despite the multitude of teams in the Challengers Stage. Despite the loss against the Europeans, 9z gave Nico "nicoodoz'"Tamjidi a run for their money on Mirage and Nuke.

Also read: FURIAously moving on!

Starting off the action on 9z's pick of Mirage, fnatic got off to a strong start on their CT-side, mounting a dominant 12-3 half thanks to a massive performance from Dion "FASHR" Derksen. After switching sides, 9z worked on closing the deficit after winning their CT-side pistol and the following three rounds before fnatic found map point by winning three of the next four rounds. 9z kept the map competitive before fnatic closed out Mirage four rounds later with a 16-11 win.

Moving onto Nuke, 9z had their turn in the driver's seat after a 3-0 start from fnatic as they won their CT-side outright 10-5. Despite winning their T-side pistol once again, 9z began to fall apart after fnatic's academy got running, with nicodooz's troops winning eleven out of the next twelve rounds in a row to clinch Nuke 16-14, denying 9z overtime and a chance at a third map.

IEM Rio Major 2022 Challengers Stage

Bo3

fnatic

2 - 0

All maps

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating 2.0
Nico 'nicoodoz' Tamjidi	46 - 32	+14	82.0	70.2%	1.25
Dion 'FASHR' Derksen	44 - 36	+8	75.5	66.7%	1.16
William 'mezii' Merriman	39 - 35	+4	72.5	73.7%	1.08
Freddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson	35 - 37	-2	70.6	77.2%	1.08
Fredrik 'roeJ' Jørgensen	35 - 41	-6	73.3	64.9%	0.94

9z	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating 2.0
Franco 'dgt' Garcia	46 - 36	+10	76.5	68.4%	1.16
Lucas 'nqz' Soares	42 - 35	+7	71.1	73.7%	1.09
Maximiliano 'max' Gonzalez	38 - 43	-5	81.6	71.9%	1.02
Nicolás 'buda' Kramer	27 - 41	-14	55.7	64.9%	0.77
David 'dav1deuS' Tapia Maldonado	28 - 44	-16	62.1	59.6%	0.75