9z clinch last Major spot for the Americas after defeating EG and paiN

paiN and Evil Geniuses end their adventure in Romania without a Major spot.

9z have qualified for the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 after defeating paiN 2-0 in the sixth place decider at the Americas RMR. David "⁠dav1deuS⁠" Tapia Maldonado's squad started their day by edging a 2-1 victory over favored Evil Geniuses before sweeping the Brazilians of paiN.

After a 0-2 start to the Swiss stage, 9z were staring down the barrel of elimination following defeats to MIBR and Evil Geniuses. The South American side had to take three consecutive best-of-three matches to keep their Major hopes alive, and they delivered.

Ahead of their qualification match, 9z bagged wins against Bad News Bears, 00NATION, and São Caetano before taking their revenge over Evil Geniuses in the eighth place decider.

9z celebrate making it to their first Major

In the spot-deciding series, paiN took the opening pistol on 9z's pick of Mirage, but their failure to prevent a plant would come to haunt them. 9z would use their additional funds to piece together a solid buy on the second round, smashing into the B site and evening out the score. From there, 9z would dominate the half as both Franco "⁠dgt⁠" Garcia and dav1deuS shined on the offense. The Brazilian squad was eventually able to string a few rounds together to limit their deficit to 5-10 going into the break.

The second half saw paiN play a more creative T side, with Wesley "⁠hardzao⁠" Lopes finding his form after a quiet first half. Despite the improvement from Vinicios "⁠PKL⁠" Coelho's squad, 9z never gave up their lead, and comfortably closed the opening map 16-11.

The series quickly moved to Dust2, and paiN were able to deliver a much more convincing performance on their own pick. The Brazilians brushed off an early 2-4 deficit, stringing six rounds in a row as hardzao was able to carry his form from the second half of Mirage. However, 9z would not fold so easily, stealing the last three rounds of the half, only trailing 7-8 before halftime.

9z's advance on the offense would be temporarily halted by a successful paiN pistol, briefly extending the Brazilian lead. 9z's individuals would all come alive in the second half, hitting some crucial shots to retake the momentum and claim a 14-11 lead. What followed was one of the closest ends to a match from the whole tournament, with paiN desperately clawing their way back to force overtime. A nail-biting set of extra-time saw both teams fight tooth and nail for every round, with 9z eventually coming out victorious 19-17, punching their tickets to Belgium.

The final standings for the Americas RMR are:

Group Swiss 3W - 0L FURIA MIBR 3W - 1L Imperial Complexity Liquid 3W - 2L 9z paiN Evil Geniuses 2W - 3L Party Astronauts Case São Caetano 1W - 3L 00NATION Isurus TeamOne 0W - 3L Bad News Bears Leviatan Franco 'dgt' Garcia Age: 20 Team: 9z Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 391 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.61 Vinicios 'PKL' Coelho Age: 27 Team: paiN Rating 1.0: 0.97 Maps played: 1100 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.67 Wesley 'hardzao' Lopes Age: 21 Team: paiN Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 638 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.62 David 'dav1deuS' Tapia Maldonado Age: 21 Team: 9z Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 285 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.67 Bad News Bears #62 Gabe 'Spongey' GreinerAlan 'Shakezullah' HardemanChristopher 'Swahn' SwahnKhizar 'Momo' RehmanSaad 'Pluto' Siraj 00NATION #73 Marcelo 'coldzera' DavidLeonardo 'leo_drk' OliveiraMario 'malbsMd' SamayoaVinicius 'vsm' MoreiraSantino 'try' Rigal 9z #45 Maximiliano 'max' GonzalezFranco 'dgt' GarciaLuca 'Luken' NadottiMartin 'rox' MolinaDavid 'dav1deuS' Tapia Maldonado São Caetano #139 Caio 'zqkS' FonsecaGustavo 'SHOOWTiME' GonçalvesFelipe 'delboNi' DelboniDaniel 'danoco' MorgadoCristopher 'ckzao' Chalus MIBR #28 Marcelo 'chelo' CespedesRaphael 'exit' LacerdaAdriano 'WOOD7' CeratoMatheus 'Tuurtle' AnhaiaJhonatan 'JOTA' Willian Evil Geniuses #44 William 'RUSH' WierzbaTimothy 'autimatic' TaJake 'Stewie2K' YipVincent 'Brehze' CayonteTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov paiN #37 Vinicios 'PKL' CoelhoGabriel 'NEKIZ' SchenatoWesley 'hardzao' LopesRodrigo 'biguzera' BittencourtGabriel 'nython' Lino