Grading NA performance at the RMR

Last, week, sixteen teams fought through the Americas RMR to determine which five teams would represent the region at the BLAST.tv Paris Major, the final Major for CS:GO. After four brutal days of competition, some upsets, some favorites, and a lot of tech issues, the tournament came to an end, with FURIA taking the legends slot, and paiN, Liquid, Complexity, and Fluxo bringing up the rear.

For the most part, the tournament went as expected. In the pre-RMR power ranking, Dust2.us staff unanimously chose FURIA, Liquid, paiN, and Complexity to survive the double elimination Swiss system, and we were all proven correct. But, while the result may just boil down to "qualified" and "eliminated", we can dig deep into each of the teams' performances to see where on the American grading system they fall.

Liquid: B

BLAST.tv Paris Major Americas RMR Roster:

• Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski

• Keith "NAF" Markovic

• Josh "oSee" Ohm

• Nick "nitr0" Canella

• Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis

• Damian "daps" Steele (Coach)

Coming into the RMR, the question was not "Will Liquid make the Major?", but "Can Liquid make Legends?" Well, the answer ended up being no. Liquid quickly won their first two BO1s, crushing a shockingly weak 00 Nation and easily dispatching of an upstart Flamengo. However, when the going got tough against FURIA, Liquid could not keep up. They barely won their own map pick in overtime, lost on the second map, and were annihilated on the deciding map.

Oh well, 2-1, no Legends spot. At least they'll still easily make the Major, right? ...right? You would think so, but Liquid's qualification match against Nouns got hairy, and quickly at that. Despite losing their own map pick, Nouns performed incredibly on Liquid's pick of Ancient, taking it right out of Liquid's hands. Despite a fairly standard Nuke game that saw Liquid qualify, in no world should Liquid ever lose a single map to Nouns.

While Liquid did make the Major, they lose points for missing out on Legends despite being the highest ranked American team and dropping a map to Nouns.

paiN: A

BLAST.tv Paris Major Americas RMR Roster:

• Rodrigo "biguzera" Bittencourt

• Wesley "hardzao" Lopes

• Felipe "skullz" Medeiros

• Romeu "zevy" Rocco

• Gabriel "NEKIZ" Schenato

• Henrique "rikz" Waku (Coach)

While paiN looked good heading into the RMR, nobody expected the absolute clinic they would put on against regional competition. An absolute smashing against Paquetá followed by a clean win over Complexity took paiN to 2-0, after which they completely dominated Fluxo, giving up only 9 rounds against their Brazilian brothers.

paiN performed about as well as one can ask, the only reason they stay shy of A+ is because they lost a winnable BO3 to FURIA that would have given a direct invite to the Legends stage of the Major.

Nouns: B

BLAST.tv Paris Major Americas RMR Roster

• David "cynic" Polster

• Brendan "bwills" Williams

• Carson "nosraC" O'Reilly

• Christopher "cj" Jones

• Edgar "MarKE" Moldonado

• Kory "SEMPHIS" Friesen (Coach)

Sure, they might not have made the Major, but who expected Nouns to? Making it to the final day is an achievement in it of itself, even if it doesn't come with a sticker. A stinker of a game vs BESTIA put Nouns on the wrong foot early on, but once the BO3s started, the engine started revving.

Nouns showed resilience and grit against both yur and Flamengo, showing up when it mattered in all three maps of both elimination series. Plus, taking a map off Liquid is no easy feat. The biggest flaw on their record is the BO1 loss to BESTIA, but the team made most of it up in the BO3s. I'd chalk it up to a lack of experience.

Evil Geniuses: C+

BLAST.tv Paris Major Americas RMR Roster:

• Vincente "Brehze" Cayonte

• Timothy "autimatic" Ta

• Jadan "HexT" Postma

• Sanzhar "neaLaN" Iskhakov

• Jerric "wiz" Jiang

• Daniel "Vorborg" Vorborg (Coach)

EG are difficult to grade. At first, their performance was stunning. Coming into the event with little to no preparation and starting off their campaign with a victory of Imperial was incredible. Following that up with 13 rounds against FURIA is nothing to sneeze at neither. If the event stopped there, I'd likely give them a grade somewhere on the A scale.

But, it doesn't end there. Once the BO3s began, EG immediately were eliminated by a substandard team, Paquetá. Sure EG made it close, but that only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. EG should not be losing to teams that their Black team could defeat easily, and for that dismal performance, they're knocked down all the way to C+.

Complexity: A

BLAST.tv Paris Major Americas RMR Roster:

• Johnny "JT" Theodosiou

• Ricky "floppy" Kemery

• Justin "FaNg" Coakley

• Michael "Grim" Wince

• Håkon "hallzerk" Fjærli

• Tiaan "T.c" Coertzen (Coach)

Complexity got through the RMR only losing a single map to paiN, who surprised everyone. They defeated Solid in the opening round and exorcised their demons to finally defeat Imperial in a clean two rounds. That, plus a surprisingly spotless 2-0 over MIBR was a great performance. They made the Major, they beat Imperial finally, it's about all you could want out of Complexity.

MIBR: C

BLAST.tv Paris Major Americas RMR Roster:

• Raphael "exit" Lacerda

• Matheus "Tuurtle" Anhaia

• Breno "Brnz4n" Poletto

• Henrique "HEN1" Teles

• Felipe "insani" Yuji

• Bruno "BIT" Fukuda Lima (Coach)

MIBR were honestly in contention for making the Major before the RMR. Half the Dust2.us staff chose them as their fifth team to make it. But, nobody expected the collapse at the RMR. Their loss to Flamengo was by far the biggest upset of the tournament, and took them to BO3 territory immediately.

They may have crushed 00 Nation and defeated BESTIA, but that latter match was awfully close, and their 0-2 loss to Complexity was rather sad for a squad that we all know can achieve much more than what they showed in Monterrey.

yur: B-

BLAST.tv Paris Major Americas RMR Roster

• Ethan "reck" Serrano

• Jordan "jitter" Ruggiero

• Walker "walker" Harris

• Anthony "CLASIA" Kearney

• Matthew "d4rty" Paplawskas

Not much expected, not much delivered. 0-2 is a rough way to exit the RMR, but statistically, four teams had to. yur are ECL level talent, so it's a surprise they were able to get this far at all. To add to that, this was a mix team put together for the Open Qualifiers, they don't even have League experience together as a full five. In fact, before the RMR, most of them had already been linked to other projects.

So given that, 13 rounds against Fluxo isn't bad, and neither is taking a map against Nouns. Given more time, perhaps the yur squad could amount to something, but the players don't seem interested in that. The best thing we can do is to forget their performance at the RMR, which the players seem to be eager to do.

LOS + oNe: F

BLAST.tv Paris Major Americas RMR Roster:

• Pedro "Mlauk3" Campos

• Matheus "pesadelo" Panisset

• Alencar "trk" Rossato

• Victor "iDK" Torraca

• Mario "malbsMD" Samayoa

Disappointment. oNe could have and should have done much better. They faced stiff opposition in FURIA and Imperial, but the way they lost was just heartbreaking. We know that oNe can get more than six rounds against FURIA, and the utter disaster that was 3 rounds over an entire series against Imperial was astonishing, to say the least.

This is the worst way to go out of final CS:GO Major, LOS + oNe had so much more potential at the RMR. Hopefully they can keep their heads held high for future tournaments and show up better, because we know they can do better.

FURIA: A

BLAST.tv Paris Major Americas RMR Roster:

• Andrei "arT" Piovezan

• Yuri "yuurih" Santos

• Kaike "kscerato" Cerato

• Rafael "saffee" Costa

• André "drop" Abreu

Securing the sole Legends spot up for grab at the RMR, FURIA went 4-0 to dominate the rest of the competition. The only slight blemish on their record is a map loss to paiN and a surprisingly close BO1 vs Evil Geniuses. Still, they defeated their demons of Liquid, beat the upstart paiN team, and took home the Legends spot. Not much more you can ask from FURIA, giving them a great A performance.