First NA player qualifies for IEM Rio
While many of us are intently focused on the IEM Rio Americas RMR, the concurrent European RMRs have not only produced the first team to qualify for IEM Rio, but also the first North American player to qualify as well. Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken, joined by his teammates on the top-ranked side of FaZe, have locked in their spot at the season's most illustrious event, after hard-fought wins over GamerLegion, fnatic, and Sprout.
Since the player break, FaZe have not been as dominant as they were during the first half of the year, as the squad has suffered defeats at the hands of OG, G2, and Cloud9, while also having maps stolen away by Complexity, Outsiders, and MIBR. FaZe are still no doubt one of, if not the best in the world, but their run in the Europe RMR A was not without difficulties.
FaZe's opening match against GamerLegion was one many expected to be a stomp for the reigning Major champions, but in practice the game was dragged into quadruple overtime, with FaZe narrowly edging out a win with a scoreline of 28-25. FaZe's next match against fnatic proved to be almost as contentious, as this game was also brought to overtime, although this time FaZe only needed one bout before they won 19-17 to secure a 2-0 record.
For a shot at securing their Legends spot at IEM Rio, Twistzz and co. tussled with Sprout in what also ended up being a far closer affair than what many would have thought. The first and second maps of play were brought to overtime, with the first map of Ancient going the way of FaZe 19-17 while the second, Nuke, was snatched by Sprout 19-16. Only in the deciding map of Mirage were FaZe able to post their only truly dominant showing of the event, as a 1.73 rating from Twistzz overwhelmed Sprout, allowing FaZe to take the map 16-5 to book their tickets to Rio.
FaZeSprout| FaZe |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Helvijs 'broky' Saukants |
74 - 52 | +22 | 80.9 | 76.1% | 1.27 |
 Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
72 - 60 | +12 | 85.2 | 75.0% | 1.21 |
 Robin 'ropz' Kool |
61 - 49 | +12 | 69.5 | 71.7% | 1.10 |
 Finn 'karrigan' Andersen |
67 - 66 | +1 | 78.1 | 68.5% | 1.04 |
 Håvard 'rain' Nygaard |
59 - 65 | -6 | 73.1 | 62.0% | 0.97 |
| Sprout |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Laurențiu 'lauNX' Țârlea |
82 - 65 | +17 | 90.0 | 71.7% | 1.22 |
 Fritz 'slaxz-' Dietrich |
55 - 64 | -9 | 68.6 | 62.0% | 0.94 |
| Victor 'Staehr' Staehr |
56 - 66 | -10 | 68.8 | 59.8% | 0.88 |
| Rasmus 'Zyphon' Nordfoss |
52 - 71 | -19 | 65.1 | 59.8% | 0.82 |
| Ismail 'refrezh' Ali |
46 - 67 | -21 | 60.4 | 66.3% | 0.81 |
Twistzz won't have to wait long to find out what other North American players will be joining him in Rio, as the match between Liquid and Complexity guarantees that Twistzz will be reunited with at least one of his former teammates from his Liquid tenure.
