fnatic have returned to the Legends Stage for the first time since the FACEIT Major in 2018.

The Challengers Stage of the IEM Rio Major has concluded with fnatic moving past 9z with a 2-0 scoreline, winning Mirage (16-11) and Nuke (16-14) after coming back from 5-13 down on the second map.

William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman and company's path to the Legends Stage started convincingly, winning BO1 games against Cloud9 and OG. Once they moved to the BO3 games the European combine struggled to book their ticket to the next stage, losing to MOUZ and Outsiders to join the 2-2 pool. They made the most of their final chance, winning against the South American side to become the Legends Stage's final team.

Meanwhile, 9z exit the Challengers Stage with a 2-3 record after a spirited campaign during which they secured wins against Imperial and Evil Geniuses but ultimately fell short in front of a supportive crowd with defeats to BIG, GamerLegion, and fnatic.

fnatic started Mirage on the CT side, winning the pistol and running away to a 5-0 lead before 9z answered back. They were able to get two isolated round wins on the B site, but failed to break the economy of the European combine, meaning they were soon 9-2 down. fnatic were dominant in the first half, with Dion "⁠FASHR⁠" Derksen particularly impressive as he put up 21 frags on the defense.

The second-half pistol round went the way of 9z, which they converted to a four-round streak to reduce the deficit to five rounds. fnatic soon answered back with a couple of A attacks, winning the three rounds they required to get to map point. With his back against the wall, Franco "⁠dgt⁠" Garcia delivered two triple-kills for his team to keep them in the map a bit longer, before FASHR and mezii converted a 2vs2 situation to close out the game 16-11.

Nuke opened with a fnatic T-side pistol victory, giving the European team a 3-0 start. Their success didn't last long, however, as 9z were quick to tie up the scores at 3-3 with Lucas "⁠nqz⁠" Soares finding impact with the AWP. Six more straight rounds followed, the South American side finding themselves 9-3 up and looking comfortable. Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson cashed in his wealthy experience by finding a few good openings in the next, securing his team a much overdue round. The Swede's heroics gave fnatic some momentum, which they made the most of to reduce the half-time deficit to five.

Nicolás "⁠buda⁠" Kramer and nqz found a double each to deliver the pistol round to 9z, which the South Americans converted into a 13-5 lead. This meant that fnatic had a mountain to climb, starting the comeback as soon as their economy allowed it. Nico "⁠nicoodoz⁠" Tamjidi was at the center of everything on the CT side, first winning a 1vs1 clutch against buda and then stopping a vent dive with two knife kills. 9z momentarily stopped the comeback with a 3vs4 post-plant conversion, but it wasn't to be. nicoodoz once again delivered, getting two multi-kill rounds with the AWP that put fnatic up on match point. They closed out the map with a 16-14 scoreline and thus became the final team to qualify for the Legends Stage of the IEM Rio Major.

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Nico 'nicoodoz' Tamjidinicoodoz	46 - 32	+14	82.0	1.25
Dion 'FASHR' DerksenFASHR	44 - 36	+8	75.5	1.16
William 'mezii' Merrimanmezii	39 - 35	+4	72.5	1.08
Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonKRIMZ	35 - 37	-2	70.6	1.08
Fredrik 'roeJ' JørgensenroeJ	35 - 41	-6	73.3	0.94

9z	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Franco 'dgt' Garciadgt	46 - 36	+10	76.5	1.16
Lucas 'nqz' Soaresnqz	42 - 35	+7	71.1	1.09
Maximiliano 'max' Gonzalezmax	38 - 43	-5	81.6	1.02
Nicolás 'buda' Kramerbuda	27 - 41	-14	55.7	0.77
David 'dav1deuS' Tapia Maldonadodav1deuS	28 - 44	-16	62.1	0.75