The Regional Major Rankings (RMR) system is a fairly new addition to the world of competitive CSGO. They were originally unveiled in 2020 due to COVID-19 postponing the ESL One Rio Major. What started as a necessary compromise has quickly transformed into one of the most exciting fixtures of the competitive CSGO schedule. This year has been no different, with the Road to Rio RMR delivering some nail-biting matches that saw some teams rise and others fall by the wayside.
Winners and Losers
This year’s RMR events have seen some surprising outcomes. The likes of Evil Geniuses, Team Liquid, and Ninjas in Pyjamas weren’t expected to perform particularly well, but all three rosters came out all guns blazing. Meanwhile, firm favorites like Astralis and G2 Esports came unstuck, failing to qualify for the Rio Major. What really stood out this year was that many of the MVPs of the RMR events were duos. Dynamic duos were the standout players at all four of the RMR. Below, we spotlight each pairing and why their performance secured their teams a spot in the IEM Rio Major.
S1mple and electron1c (NAVI)
It will come as no surprise that NAVI delivered in the European RMR event, but Denis “electroNic” Sharipov and Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev deserve a special mention. This premier pairing secured the top two spots in the player ratings. With electroNic securing a succession of triple and quad kills, it was left for s1mple to mop up the rest of the competition with his devastating AWP skills.
Sk0r and bLitz (IHC)
Bar a few notable exceptions, IHC Esports rarely do well at the Majors. However, IHC Esports broke that trend with a stunning showcase at the Asian RMR event. This team is now considered one of the finest CSGO lineups operating out of Asia and has finally put Mongolia on the map. While the entire roster delivered, it was Tengis “sk0r” Batjargal and Garidmagnai “bLitz” Byambasuren that really shined, with sk0r walking away with a whopping 40 kills alone. And here is the latest CSGO news read here: https://www.fyed.me/en/
Hampus and brollan (Ninjas in Pyjamas)
Ninjas in Pyjamas have endured plenty of behind-the-scenes live csgo scores here in recent months. Along with some lineup changes, the team has made the switch to English-only comms. With all this and more going on, nobody was expecting NiP to deliver the goods at the European RMR. That’s why their jaw-dropping performance came as such a surprise. Admittedly, most of the credit needs to go
to Ludvig “brollan” Brolin and Hampus Poser. This duo operated as a well-oiled machine, comfortably taking their team to a perfect 3-0 victory. Think you’ve got what it takes to match NiP’s magnificent performance? You’ll need to brush up on the basics first. To get started, get stuck into the latest CSGO callouts Dust 2 guide here.
arT and saffee (FURIA)
It was from plain sailing at the Americas RMR for FURIA. They struggled against Evil Geniuses but secured more impressive victories against the likes of paIN Gaming and O Plano. It was during play against the latter that Andrei “arT” Piovezan and Rafael “saffee” Costa proved themselves as FURIA’s most valuable players. While playing on Mirage, arT notched up no less than 26 kills. Meanwhile, saffee secured no less than 50 kills across Vertigo and Nuke.
