The storied organization returns to its first Major since IEM Katowice 2019.

fnatic comfortably dispatched of 1WIN in a two-map series, winning Overpass (16-5) and Ancient (16-9) to go 3-2 in the Europe RMR A tournament and book their spot at the IEM Rio Major Challengers Stage.

Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev & co. have been eliminated from the tournament with a 2-3 record after they were unable to convert either of their two chances to qualify for the Major with losses to Cloud9 and the European mix around William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman.

fnatic had found themselves in an unenviable situation after they followed up their opening day victory against Aurora with losses against FaZe and B8. Once they moved away from the best-of-one format, they showed a different face, comfortably beating Eternal Fire and 1WIN to return to the Major stage.

1WIN began Overpass by taking a quick lead with a pistol round win, but they weren't ahead for long. fnatic fought back with a seven-round streak, as the CIS squad looked bereft of ideas.

That meant the European combine raced to a 10-5 lead at the half, with mezii providing the highlight of the map by getting an ace on the B site. 1WIN, who struggled on the offensive side of Overpass against Cloud9 in their previous match, once again failed to find any success on the T side, losing six straight to lose the map 5-16.

1WIN's woes on the offense continued on Ancient, where fnatic completely shut out their opponents in the opening eight rounds, not even allowing them a bomb plant in the process. flamie rolled back the years with a 1vs3 clutch on the B site, and just as 1WIN looked to be getting back into the game, they lost a round to fnatic's eco. The European combine used the momentum straight to halftime to lead 13-2.

1WIN started their defense by winning the first six rounds of the half, looking much more comfortable on the map's preferred side. But with fnatic's massive lead from the first half, it was only a matter of time before they closed out the game. Two ferocious attacks proved too much for the CIS squad to handle, as fnatic reached match point and eventually closed out the game 16-9.

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Nico 'nicoodoz' Tamjidinicoodoz	47 - 22	+25	97.5	1.59
Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonKRIMZ	39 - 23	+16	87.6	1.41
William 'mezii' Merrimanmezii	36 - 29	+7	91.7	1.31
Fredrik 'roeJ' JørgensenroeJ	36 - 31	+5	80.9	1.28
Dion 'FASHR' DerksenFASHR	29 - 28	+1	61.4	1.01

1WIN	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Aleksandr 'TRAVIS' TimkivTRAVIS	33 - 38	-5	83.1	1.00
Egor 'flamie' Vasilyevflamie	29 - 37	-8	78.5	0.91
Aleksandr 'glowiing' Matsievichglowiing	31 - 37	-6	79.8	0.91
Denis 'deko' Zhukovdeko	24 - 37	-13	61.2	0.73
Igor 'lollipop21k' Solodkovlollipop21k	16 - 38	-22	44.9	0.45

The teams who qualified for the IEM Rio Major so far are:

TBD*
Liquid
Evil Geniuses
Spirit
Cloud9
Sprout
HEROIC
Vitality
OG

* Liquid vs. Evil Geniuses will decide one Legends spot

The highest seeded team between Spirit, Cloud9, and Sprout will secure a Legends spot automatically, and the other two teams will play for another

HEROIC, Vitality, and OG will play in a third-place decider bracket for a Legends spot