You know what the best part is about competitive Counter-Strike? The fact that there’s almost always a top tier tournament going on. With the IEM Rio 2023 kicking off today, that means another tournament full of action, drama and much more! Good news for NIP & NaVi fans is that their teams started off the tournament picking up wins.
NIP & NaVi Wins Their Opening Matches
NIP vs Imperial Esports
Rosters
NIP
- Fredrik ‘REZ’ Sterner
- Ludvig ‘Brollan’ Brolin
- Aleksi ‘Aleksib’ Virolainen
- Danyyl ‘headtr1ck’ Valitov
- Kristian ‘k0nfig’ Wienecke
Imperial Esports
- Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo
- Ricardo ‘boltz’ Prass
- Vinicius ‘VINI’ Figueiredo
- Marcelo ‘chelo’ Cespedes
- Jhonatan ‘JOTA’ Wilian
Map Picks & Bans
- Imperial removed Vertigo
- Ninjas in Pyjamas removed Overpass
- Ninjas in Pyjamas removed Inferno
- Imperial removed Nuke
- Imperial removed Anubis
- Ninjas in Pyjamas removed Ancient
- Mirage was left over
The Match
It was Mongolia vs the rest of Europe in the first match of IEM Rio 2023. With Mirage being the battleground, both teams looked to move to the upper bracket semifinals from group A.
We are back @NIPBR
Major here we come 🇩🇰 pic.twitter.com/eG0gZnk1mC
— Ninjas in Pyjamas (@NIP) April 16, 2023
The Ninjas started off the map winning the first two pistol rounds. But Imperial responded right after picking up the next 3 rounds without flinching. It was then NIP’s turn to pick up consecutive rounds as they won the next 4. For the rest of the first half, it was pretty much NIP domination. The first half ended 11-4 in favor of Ninjas in Pyjamas. In the second half, there was little to show from the side of Imperial Esports. They won only one round in the second half as NIP finished off the map 16-5. It was Brollan that really stood out on NIP’s first match of the tournament.
NaVi vs The Mongolz
Rosters
NaVi
- Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyljev
- Denis ‘electroNic’ Sharipov
- Ilya ‘Perfecto’ Zalutskiy
- Valerij ‘b1t’ Vakhovsjkyj
- Andrij ‘npl’ Kukharsjkyj
The Mongolz
- Garidmagnai ‘bLitz’ Byambasuren
- Sodbayar ‘Techno4K’ Munkhbold
- Baatarkhuu ‘Bart4k’ Batbold
- Tuvshintugs ‘ANNIHILATION’ Nyamdorj
- Chinguun ‘hasteka’ Bayarmaa
Map Picks & Bans
- TheMongolz removed Ancient
- Natus Vincere removed Anubis
- Natus Vincere removed Inferno
- TheMongolz removed Vertigo
- TheMongolz removed Overpass
- Natus Vincere removed Nuke
- Mirage was left over
The Match
For NaVi vs The Mongolz, Mirage was the playground once again. NaVi started off their IEM Rio 2023 run winning the pistol rounds against Mongolz. They followed it up by winning three more rounds at a stretch. But it was now time for Mongolz to respond. For the rest of the first half, it was total domination from the Mongolian side. Their aggression and tactics outshined the entire NaVi roster. The first half ended 8-7 in favor of the NaVi side. NaVi were looking at an imminent upset if they were to let this continue. However, they did turn things around in the beginning of the second half. They consecutively picked up the first four rounds in the second half regaining their lead over their opponents. The Mongolz could do very little after as NaVi soon picked up the map. The match ended with NaVi winning on Mirage 16-9. Gotta feel bad for bLitz who put up an impressive show for the Mongolz.
The first match goes the way of @natusvincere! 🙌
They open up Group A at #IEM Rio with a 16-9 win over @MongolzCs after a dominant T-side on Mirage pic.twitter.com/jRMCI4XQTu
— Intel® Extreme Masters (@IEM) April 17, 2023
The two victors of the opening matches, NIP & NaVi will be facing each other tonight later on. The winner of that matchup will be moving onto the upper bracket finals from group A.
