The third round of the IEM Rio CS:GO Major kicked off with Natus Vincere locking horns with Team Liquid, their first-ever official with Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis who was officially signed into the team prior to the start of the major.
Below you can find the Map Veto between these two teams alongside a summary of how things unfolded going ahead into the day.
Map: Ancient (Leftover in the pool, Winner: Team Liquid, Final Score: 16:14)
Natus Vincere got off to a flawless start going up 8-3 early into the game. Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella and his men felt destitute and listless as the reinforcements set by Denis “electroNic” Sharipov and Valerii “b1t” Vakhovskyi in particular caused Liquid a lot of trouble in opening up sites for the C4 business.
With Viktor “sdy” Orudzhev packing up the North Americans while on a B-site attempt, Natus Vincere found themselves in the driver’s seat and poised to run away with Ancient as they ended the first half 12-3.
After a pistol round and a subsequent conversion, Liquid indeed found its rhythm with Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski taking up the mantle to replicate the same situation for Natus Vincere. It all came down to the score tied up 13-13 as it was Joshua “oSee” Ohm who closed out the game with a kill with his sniper and a defuse to go 2-1 up in the Legends Stage of the IEM: Rio CS:GO Major 2022.
