00NATION under pressure at Americas RMR after 9z comeback

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Epitacio "⁠TACO⁠" de Melo's team suffers an early loss in the IEM Rio Major qualifier after dropping a hefty lead.

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Update 17:10 : Second-round matchups are set

1-0 pool
FURIA vs. Evil Geniuses
Imperial vs. 9z
MIBR vs. Liquid
paiN vs. Complexity

0-1 pool
Nouns vs. Infinity
00NATION vs. Isurus
O PLANO vs. TeamOne
ATK vs. ARCTIC

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The first day of the IEM Road to Rio Americas RMR has gotten underway and witnessed its first upset in an otherwise predictable first round of play at the event taking place in Stockholm, Sweden.

Despite being in a winning position at 14-7 on the Terrorist side of Overpass, 00NATION dropped the hefty lead to a resilient and aggressive 9z squad who had their AWPer, Lucas "⁠nqz⁠" Soares, firing on all cylinders and leading his team back into contention for the map and secure it in overtime.

00NATION stumble in their opening match in Stockholm

With only six Major spots on offer at the 16-team Americas RMR, a loss in the opening round puts 00NATION under great pressure already. They now have to either win three matches in a row to secure a spot at their home Major outright or at least go 3-2 to go on to fight in the sixth-place decider.

The first round of play in Stockholm has otherwise seen the favorites prevail. FURIA, Imperial, Evil Geniuses, paiN, and Complexity are all in the 1-0 pool now, with MIBR now being in a lead in their opener against O PLANO and Liquid about to face TeamOne in the final match of round 1.

The second round will follow later in the day, starting at 18:00 . 00NATION's opponent in the 0-1 pool is yet to be determined, as it depends on the final two results of the first round.

Here are the current standings of the Americas RMR:

Group Swiss 1W - 0L FURIA Imperial Complexity Evil Geniuses paiN 9z 0W - 0L Liquid MIBR O PLANO TeamOne 0W - 1L 00NATION ARCTIC Nouns ATK Isurus Infinity MIBR #24 Henrique 'HEN1' TelesRaphael 'exit' LacerdaMatheus 'Tuurtle' AnhaiaJhonatan 'JOTA' WillianBreno 'brnz4n' Poletto Imperial #21 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFernando 'fer' AlvarengaRicardo 'boltz' PrassMarcelo 'chelo' CespedesVinicius 'VINI' Figueiredo Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo Age: 27 Team: 00NATION Rating 1.0: 0.92 Maps played: 1427 KPR: 0.61 DPR: 0.64 TeamOne #34 Pedro 'Maluk3' CamposVictor 'iDk' TorracaAlencar 'trk' RossatoMario 'malbsMd' SamayoaMatheus 'pesadelo' Panisset Nouns #44 Dominick 'JazzPimp' DimpfelDavid 'cynic' PolsterBrendan 'Bwills' WilliamsDanny 'Cxzi' StrzelczykJeorge 'Jeorge' Endicott Isurus #89 Nicolás 'Noktse' DávilaRoberto 'reversive' ThemthamIgnacio 'meyern' MeyerMarcos 'deco' AmatoLuciano 'luchov' Herrera Complexity #17 Johnny 'JT' TheodosiouRicky 'floppy' KemeryHåkon 'hallzerk' FjærliMichael 'Grim' WinceJustin 'FaNg' Coakley Infinity #93 Francisco 'k1Nky' AlvarezAndres 'spamzzy' CorreaJoel 'TORITO' Rios ManriqueRenato 'pacmanN' MoralesBryan 'Marro' Valles Valenzuela O PLANO #90 Vito 'kNgV-' GiuseppeGabriel 'NEKIZ' SchenatoGustavo 'yel' KnittelCaike 'caike' CostaGuilherme 'piriajr' Barbosa Time is adjusted to your selected timezone 00NATION #29 Epitacio 'TACO' de MeloMarcelo 'coldzera' DavidEduardo 'dumau' WolkmerBruno 'latto' RebelattoSantino 'try' Rigal Lucas 'nqz' Soares Age: 17 Team: 9z Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 210 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.59 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 ATK #40 Rhys 'Fadey' ArmstrongIan 'motm' HardyJonathan 'b0denmaster' BodenmalmMichael 'Swisher' SchmidGareth 'MisteM' Ries paiN #23 Vinicios 'PKL' CoelhoWesley 'hardzao' LopesRodrigo 'biguzera' BittencourtFelipe 'skullz' MedeirosRomeu 'zevy' Rocco 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 ARCTIC #100 Gabriel 'ponter' AmaralMarcello 'MaLLby' CzarneskiIcaro 'ninjaZ' CavalariPaulo 'short' BallardiniAllan 'history' Lawrenz