Natus Vincere, MOUZ advance to IEM Rio semifinals

MOUZ and Natus Vincere moved on to the semifinals of the Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2024 event Friday in Rio de Janeiro.

After losing 13-7 to Team Vitality on Mirage, MOUZ battled back with victories on Nuke (13-11) and Inferno (13-10) to set up a semifinal matchup against FURIA on Saturday. Dorian "xertioN" Berman led MOUZ with 54 kills and a plus-five kill-death differential. Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut had a team-leading plus-18 kill-death differential for Team Vitality.

Natus Vincere had a much easier time against Virtus.pro, winning 13-4 on Inferno and 13-11 on Ancient to advance to face HEROIC on Saturday in the other semifinal. Mihai "iM" Ivan paced Natus Vincere with 37 kills and Justinas "jL" Lekavicius had a team-best plus-14 kill-death differential in the win. Denis "electroNic" Sharipov led Virtus.pro with 31 kills.

The $250,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event began with two double-elimination groups of eight teams. The best-of-one opening matches in both groups were played Monday. All ensuing group matches were best-of-three.

The playoffs are a single-elimination bracket where all matches are best-of-three until the best-of-five grand final Sunday.

The winning team will take home $100,000 and earn an automatic berth into IEM Katowice 2025.

IEM Rio 2024 prize pool

1. $100,000, qualification to IEM Katowice 2025

2. $42,000

3-4. $20,000

5-6. $10,000 -- Virtus.pro, TBD

7-8. $6,000 -- FaZe Clan, The MongolZ

9-12. $5,000 -- Complexity Gaming, Team Liquid, Astralis, Eternal Fire

13-16. $4,000 -- Imperial Esports, paiN Gaming, 9z Team, G2 Esports

--Field Level Media