FURIA starts Legends Stage on the right foot
After a 3-1 Challengers Stage, FURIA took the stage on Day 1 of the Legends Stage under great applauses and chants from the Brazilian crowd. With a tifo with FURIA's colors and choreography work done by the fans themselves that would put some clubs to shame, the support given was proportional to the importance of this match against ENCE.
This was ENCE's first match of the IEM Rio Major and they were tossed straight to the stage, where they would meet a lot of noise from the crowd.
The map veto dictated that Vertigo would be played, as FURIA chose Ancient as the final ban and so ENCE chose the starting side.
Despite an early death for the Brazilians, the crowd erupted with a T-side pistol win for FURIA. The following round ended with the home team getting three kills and a bomba plant which was enough to dissuade the Europeans. Round three had the whole crowd on their feet as IGL Andrei "arT" Piovezan managed to get a knife kill over Pavle "Maden" Bošković and win the round as well. The first gun round went over to FURIA after the ENCE players didn't have time to defuse the bomb despite the 2v1 situation in their favor. Safe to say the ENCE team wasn't ready for such a crowd.
As fans would sing as loud as ever, Valdemar "valde" Bjørn Vangså was defending the A-site and helping his team get their first round of the map. After a technical pause, FURIA answered with a strong execution still on the A-site losing only two players in the process. ENCE replied in the same way, with a stronger hold on Ramp. It wouldn't be a Vertigo match without three straight rounds on A-Ramp, this time ENCE won the round due to Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato slow rotation which meant he couldn't plant the bomb in time.
The game was now 5-3 for the Brazilians. The Europeans got two more rounds after that but the crowd didn't stop chanting. With a tie on their hands, André "drop" Abreu and Rafael "saffee" Costa opened the round with two great kills which resulted in a successful B-site take. FURIA seemed to be on rails, as they would get two more after that one. The following round came down to a 1v3 disadvantage for the Brazilians that Yuri "yuurih" Santos convincingly won. The first half was flying by and FURIA closed it with another 1v1 clutch win from KSCERATO to make it a 10-5 game.
FURIA started the second half with a CT-side pistol win after a clean retake on the B-site. The following round went the same way with a 2v2 situation on B with the bomb planted that FURIA managed to win. Round 18 came with a huge performance from drop that reeled the round in after a poor start to that round. ENCE had clear financial problems but a good start to round 19 had them in a 4v2 advantage that quickly turned into a 1v1 that KSCERATO won, again. 14-5 was the score and FURIA didn't have that much money due to all those close rounds but managed to hold off ENCE attempt to take the A-site. The next round didn't go the same way as the Europeans pushed through the Brazilian defense and made three FURIA players save. The following round, arT was unleashed on A-Ramp which helped FURIA convert that round and win the map 16-6.
FURIA will now face Spirit in the 1-0 matches, as Liquid has Sprout between the 1-1 and 0-2 matches.
