9z take down FURIA to claim IEM Dallas berth
South American squad 9z have topped the IEM Dallas South America Closed Qualifier, seeing the squad lock in a spot at FURIA's expense. As a result, FURIA will miss IEM Dallas for the first time ever, while 9z will return to the event after making an appearance at Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center last year.
9z's victory over FURIA came as the Brazilian squad had to compete in their first South American qualifier since 2018, with FURIA's recent declining fortunes necessitating a domestic appearance after years of competing in North America and Europe exclusively.
With FURIA making a rare online homestand appearance, it was initially smooth sailing for Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo and co., with the squad picking up decisive 2-0 wins over Imperial and 9z to quickly, and quite easily, lock in a spot in the finals. Meanwhile, 9z's run began with a 2-0 win over BESTIA before being knocked down to the lower bracket in the aforementioned FURIA bout. This would set up a 9z-BESTIA rematch, where despite stiff resistance from BESTIA, 9z would ultimately prevail with a 2-0 win to set up their own rematch against FURIA.
With the stage set, the second series between FURIA and 9z began with the former claiming a 13-8 win on Nuke thanks to a decisive 8-1 CT-side in the second half punctuated by a leading performance from Andrei "arT" Piovezan. Moving onto FURIA's map pick of Mirage, the map began with the two teams trading blows to force a 6-6 half before 9z mounted a dominant second half, posting a 7-2 T-side to win Mirage 13-8 and force the series onto Ancient.
With the series tied up, Ancient's first half was, like Mirage, a straight split, with 9z starting their T-side strong before FURIA bounced back in the final three rounds to tie the half 6-6. However, the deadlock would not last for long, as 9z won the first five rounds in a row on their CT-side to climb up to 11-6 before FURIA won the next five to tie things up once again at 11-11. With overtime looking likely at this point, some heroics from Franco "dgt" Garcia would ultimately secure 9z the 13-11 to best FURIA and take the SA IEM Dallas spot.
FURIA9z| FURIA |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Yuri 'yuurih' Santos |
46 - 39 | +7 | 77.8 | 68.2% | 1.11 |
| Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo |
45 - 43 | +2 | 69.3 | 74.2% | 1.06 |
| Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato |
42 - 40 | +2 | 78.5 | 68.2% | 1.03 |
| Marcelo 'chelo' Cespedes |
37 - 42 | -5 | 65.2 | 63.6% | 0.93 |
| Andrei 'arT' Piovezan |
30 - 40 | -10 | 55.6 | 65.2% | 0.79 |
| 9z |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Franco 'dgt' Garcia |
42 - 41 | +1 | 74.3 | 75.8% | 1.02 |
 Antonio 'MartinezSa' Martinez |
41 - 33 | +8 | 57.8 | 74.2% | 1.00 |
 Matias 'HUASOPEEK' Ibañez Hernandez |
43 - 42 | +1 | 66.9 | 68.2% | 0.98 |
| Maximiliano 'max' Gonzalez |
38 - 41 | -3 | 74.7 | 60.6% | 0.96 |
 Nicolás 'buda' Kramer |
36 - 43 | -7 | 68.6 | 74.2% | 0.90 |
9z will now prepare for IEM Dallas, with the Texas event beginning on May 29th. The South Americans will look to improve on their 9th-12th finish last year.
