14.03.20243 min read

America’s RMR News

As mentioned in previous Major news, 17 of the 24 teams in this round qualified from Europe, two teams from Asia, while the remaining five teams were from the Americas.

According to the Major RuleBook, if more than 4 teams qualify from the same region, the 16-team Swiss format is used. Although 16 teams competed in the American RMR, only five teams would qualify further, so a team could be eliminated with two losses instead of the usual three. So this Swiss format was held in four rounds, not five.

Of the teams participating in the tournament, only four teams entered HLTV ‘s top 30, of which three teams were named as the most likely favorites to qualify: Complexity Gaming, FURIA, and Team Liquid.

In the first round, the Liquid team beat the Brazilian BESTIA team by 13-11, and it was a pretty fierce match. The American BOSS team, which is ranked #59, beat MIBR, which is ranked #20, which was the only upset that occurred in this round. But because of this game’s result, the next round would be an uphill battle with an established team.

In the second round of the tournament, Brazil’s top team FURIA was matched with America’s Top Team Liquid. Playing on the Mirage map, FURIA started to get into quite a difficult position with a 1-1 stat for the defeated Team Liquid, which won 2-0 with a score of 13-10. But Nouns, Elevate, NRG, and Bestia, teams that suffered0-2 losses left the tournament.

In the 3rd round, paiN Gaming, Imperial, FURIA, and Complexity, teams with a 2-0 stat, played against each other. Imperial and FURIA were the first two teams from the Americas region to qualify for the Majors. In this round, only six teams left the tournament, including RED Canids, BOSS, MIBR, and Wildcard. FURIA qualified for the Major by defeating the two toughest teams of the tournament, Complexity and Liquid.

On the last day, the six teams to play were paiN Gaming vs ODDIK, while the M80 team matched against Legacy, and the last was Complexity Gaming vs. Team Liquid. When the two dominating teams from North America were matched with each other, only one could qualify for the Majors, while the other would have to go back home. Complexity maintains the same structure with no team changes in the last eight months. Liquid, skullz, cadiaN, and Twistzz joined the team only three months ago.

Commentators and analysts predicted that Liquid would win this match, but after the Liquid team won the first map, CoL made a comeback and took the second map, meaning a playoff on a third map was needed. Not only did they win but Complexity made the Majors by defeating the Liquid team on Overpass by 13-7. So, Team Liquid joined the list of teams who were expected to qualify, but fell short, joining the likes of Astralis, Falcons, and NIP.

After the tournament, JT, a player from the Complexity stated in an interview that “The format of the tournament was really bad. So, the teams got into such a difficult situation, and it needs to improve in general further.” While the defeated Team Liquid player, cadiaN said: “Of course the format was bad and the truth is, if we were able to beat the opponent there would have been no problems. We just couldn’t win on our own, we weren’t really good enough,” he said in an interview.

By the end of the Americas RMR, the 24 qualifying teams for this year’s Major were now known. In the next article, we’ll cover which teams entered the Opening Stage, Elimination Stage, and more.

AuthorTemujin Batbayar

Analyst from Ulaanbaatar specializing in CS2. Has competed in MESA tournaments, worked with Esports TV during the ESL Pro League, and reviewed both the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 and IEM Katowice 2024. Author of his own player evaluation metrics and known for accurate predictions. Has interviewed s1mple and ZywOo. In esports since the days of CS 1.3.