BOOM Esports wins ESL One: Road to Rio South America
BOOM Esports has comfortably won the South American portion of the first Road to Rio tournament, only dropping a single map over the course of the entire event.
Here comes the BOOM
It was a battle between Brazil and Argentina in the grand finals, and the "home side" came out ahead in the grand finals of ESL One: Road to Rio's South American division, which was the first to conclude in the global tournament. Isurus, the replacement side for Team One, have given a good account of themselves by beating out RED Canids and Imperial e-Sports to get to the final, but they also couldn't stop BOOM to complete their sweep. The Brazilian side featuring boltz and felps have directly qualified for the grand final by winning the group stage, and their overall record reads 4-0, with an 8-1 map score. Their only map loss came against RED Canids, a 16-7 defeat on Overpass in an otherwise close series where they had to clutch it out in overtime on Mirage in the decider. From then on, it was a much more straightforward affair.
Isurus show their mettle
Isurus got close on both occasions against BOOM but couldn't pierce their armor in the end: their group stage match served as the first place decider, and though they kept it close on Mirage after losing on Inferno, a 16-14 defeat was still a defeat. Nuke swapped places with Inferno in the veto in the grand final (setting it up as a potential decider), but the opening match was even more one-sided in the favor of BOOM this time. That said, their second tangle on Mirage was an even closer affair, going all the way to double overtime off the back of Isurus' 11-4 lead and eventual five map points before the Brazilians could finally turn things around and claim victory.
The 1600 RMR points offered for the win are the same as the amount conferred onto any other division winner, and with MIBR and FURIA competing in the North American bracket, BOOM and Isurus are in a strong position to fight for the one invitiation offered to the Rio Major for the region, which would place them in the Contenders - formerly known as New Challengers - stage of the tournament.
