Sprout clinch Major berth

The Danish-majority squad came back from a map down against B8 to secure their spot in Rio.

Sprout have qualified for only their second-ever Major by beating the lowest-ranked team in their group, B8, in a three-map series. They went 0-1 down after losing Nuke (13-16) but came back on Vertigo (16-13) and Inferno (16-7).

Their Swiss System run included wins against FORZE and Spirit, alongside an incredibly close loss against FaZe. They were given a favorable draw in the 2-1 pool by facing B8, and made the most of it to secure Major debuts for three of their members in Fritz "⁠slaxz-⁠" Dietrich, Victor "⁠Staehr⁠" Staehr, and Laurențiu "⁠lauNX⁠" Țârlea.

refrezh is proving to be a capable IGL in Sprout

The first map of the series was incredibly close, with B8 winning their map pick of Nuke with a 16-13 scoreline. The Ukrainian underdogs put together a strong Terrorist side, going into the interval 8-7 ahead, and just about managed to close out the game on the defense after going 13-12 down. Ismail "⁠refrezh⁠" Ali had a terrific performance despite his team's loss, putting up a 32 kills.

The teams were inseparable on Vertigo as well, as the map ended with the same 16-13 scoreline, only this time in favor of Sprout. Another Dane, Rasmus "⁠Zyphon⁠" Nordfoss, stepped up to the plate for the Sprout side, getting 30 kills to get his team over the line and move the series to the decider of Inferno.

B8's lack of experience shone through on the third map, Sprout fighting back after losing the pistol to lead by three rounds at the interval. refrezh and company won the second pistol and following conversion, closed out the map 16-7 and completed the reverse sweep.

IEM Road to Rio 2022 Europe RMR ABest of 3 B8Matchpage 1 2 7th October 2022 Sprout 16Nuke 13 13Vertigo 16 7Inferno 16

B8	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Denys 'amster' Liashenkoamster	57 - 54	+3	67.2	1.08
Arseniy 'cptkurtka023' Derevinskiycptkurtka023	50 - 60	-10	75.3	0.96
Artem 'r1nkle' Morozr1nkle	54 - 57	-3	66.8	0.95
Alexey 'alex666' Yarmoshchukalex666	45 - 59	-14	69.5	0.89
Mykyta 'Hkta' RevaHkta	40 - 63	-23	53.2	0.75

Sprout	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Victor 'Staehr' StaehrStaehr	67 - 56	+11	98.8	1.32
Ismail 'refrezh' Alirefrezh	61 - 49	+12	79.8	1.22
Rasmus 'Zyphon' NordfossZyphon	60 - 51	+9	80.4	1.15
Fritz 'slaxz-' Dietrichslaxz-	53 - 43	+10	66.8	1.08
Laurențiu 'lauNX' ȚârlealauNX	50 - 49	+1	66.3	1.01

Below is a list of teams confirmed at the IEM Rio Major:

Legends Stage
FaZe
Ninjas in Pyjamas
Natus Vincere
ENCE Challengers Stage
9z
FURIA TBD
Spirit
Cloud9
Sprout TBD
Liquid
Evil Geniuses FaZe #1 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenHåvard 'rain' NygaardRussel 'Twistzz' Van DulkenRobin 'ropz' KoolHelvijs 'broky' Saukants Ninjas in Pyjamas #11 Patrick 'es3tag' HansenFredrik 'REZ' SternerHampus 'hampus' PoserAleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenLudvig 'Brollan' Brolin Fritz 'slaxz-' Dietrich Age: 23 Team: Sprout Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 976 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.62 Spirit #15 Leonid 'chopper' VishnyakovBoris 'magixx' VorobievPavel 'S1ren' OgloblinRobert 'Patsi' IsyanovIhor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov Cloud9 #6 Timofey 'interz' YakushinSergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovDmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovVladislav 'nafany' GorshkovAbay 'HObbit' Khassenov ENCE #18 Marco 'Snappi' PfeifferValdemar 'valde' Bjørn VangsåPavle 'Maden' BoškovićPaweł 'dycha' DychaÁlvaro 'SunPayus' García 9z #50 Maximiliano 'max' GonzalezFranco 'dgt' GarciaDavid 'dav1deuS' Tapia MaldonadoLucas 'nqz' SoaresNicolás 'buda' Kramer Evil Geniuses #22 Timothy 'autimatic' TaVincent 'Brehze' CayonteTsvetelin 'CeRq' DimitrovSanzhar 'neaLaN' IskhakovJadan 'HexT' Postma Victor 'Staehr' Staehr Age: 18 Team: Sprout Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 295 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.67 Natus Vincere #2 Oleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' SharipovViktor 'sdy' OrudzhevIlya 'Perfecto' ZalutskiyValeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy Ismail 'refrezh' Ali Age: 24 Team: Sprout Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 1016 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.65 FORZE #26 Andrey 'Jerry' MekhryakovAleksandr 'zorte' ZagodyrenkoAleksandr 'shalfey' MarenovAleksandr 'KENSI' GurkinEvgeny 'Norwi' Ermolin Laurențiu 'lauNX' Țârlea Age: 17 Team: Sprout Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 298 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.69 B8 #69 Arseniy 'cptkurtka023' DerevinskiyArtem 'r1nkle' MorozMykyta 'Hkta' RevaAlexey 'alex666' YarmoshchukDenys 'amster' Liashenko Rasmus 'Zyphon' Nordfoss Age: 18 Team: Sprout Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 455 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.66 B8 #69 Arseniy 'cptkurtka023' DerevinskiyArtem 'r1nkle' MorozMykyta 'Hkta' RevaAlexey 'alex666' YarmoshchukDenys 'amster' Liashenko Sprout #31 Fritz 'slaxz-' DietrichVictor 'Staehr' StaehrRasmus 'Zyphon' NordfossIsmail 'refrezh' AliLaurențiu 'lauNX' Țârlea Liquid #4 Nick 'nitr0' CannellaKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJosh 'oSee' OhmMareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis FURIA #7 Andrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosKaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoRafael 'saffee' CostaAndré 'drop' Abreu