Chaos stun MIBR in Flashpoint Group B

MIBR have been knocked down to Group B's lower bracket at Flashpoint 1 after suffering a 2-0 defeat against Chaos.

"I would like to swap Cloud9 with Chaos because I want to play against smooya". By the end of the match, Epitacio "⁠TACO⁠" de Melo was eating his words after his decision to bring Joshua "⁠steel⁠" Nissan's side into his team's group backfired horribly.

Widely regarded as one of the favourites to win Flashpoint, MIBR endured a nervy and unconvincing display against a team playing their first match with a new player and attending the tournament only because of a last-minute invite. Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo's troops cut a frustrating figure on their own map pick of Train and were then left to count the cost of some crucial mistakes on Nuke, a map that could have easily gone their way. They now find themselves fighting for survival in Phase 1 against Envy, who showed earlier on Saturday against Gen.G that they cannot be written off despite missing Kaleb "⁠moose⁠" Jayne.

The Brazilian side took an early lead on Train following a scrappy pistol round but quickly lost their grip on the game as Chaos took the upper hand after getting their economy back in order. A string of rounds put the Brazilians back in the lead and set them up for what looked like a successful T side before the North Americans tightened up their defense, with steel ending the half with a 16-5 score and a 117 ADR.

Going into the CT side, MIBR certainly looked comfortable chasing a 6-9 deficit, but things quickly went from bad to worse. Their defense was picked apart from the pistol round as they had no response to the pace set by their opponents, who quickly put the game to bed after winning seven rounds without response. Owen "⁠smooya⁠" Butterfield opened the half with three quick kills on the outer site and was a constant nuisance to MIBR's defense, both inside and outside the server as he couldn't help but taunt the helpless Brazilians.

Just like on Train, MIBR came out the livelier of the two sides on Nuke, but the landscape of the game changed dramatically once Chaos had money in the bank. Apart from a brief spell in which the Brazilians were in control, steel's troops dominated the CTs during the gun stages, with the Canadian winning a 1v1 against Vito "⁠kNgV-⁠" Giuseppe in the final round to put his team in the lead before the break.

Now playing on the CT side, Chaos rubbed further salt into MIBR's wound as Hunter "⁠SicK⁠" Mims, who was playing his first official match for the team, pulled off a miraculous clutch in a round gifted by the Brazilians, who looked to be in a state of disarray. FalleN's troops picked themselves up after that rough start and restored parity at 13-13.

And that's when the nerves started to kick in. MIBR lost an anti-eco round out of nowhere but still managed to respond with a heroic spray from FalleN. Their efforts would be in vain, though, as Chaos ran away with the game after winning the final two rounds of the half, setting up a clash with DreamHack Open Anaheim champions Gen.G in the upper bracket final.