The home-crowd heroes drop down to the 0-1 pool.

Bad News Eagles have defeated 00NATION in a one-sided match on Vertigo to kick off their IEM Rio Major campaign, leaving the Brazilian side to reassess as they look to recover from the 0-1 pool. The Kosovar lineup was a cut above the 00NATION side throughout the match, despite the Epitacio "⁠TACO⁠" de Melo-led team having the crowd on their side.

Rigon "⁠rigoN⁠" Gashi and company put together a 12-3 CT half to kick off the match, and then won four in a row on the offense to lock in their spot in the 1-0 pool. The Swiss player finished the match on top of the scoreboard with a 1.67 rating.

Bad News Eagles start their Rio Major campaign with a win

The match was full of aggressive pushes, something preempted by TACO in the pre-match interview when he compared the playstyle of the Kosovar team to that of Brazilian lineups.

Bad News Eagles got a pistol round to start the game only to immediately be bested by a 00NATION forcebuy, but were able to return the favor by winning a 3vs5 situation after that, setting themselves up for a massive 12-3 lead at the half.

A second-half pistol win put the Kosovar lineup moments from victory, and they put together a flawless four-round streak on the Terrorist side to close out the game with a 16-4 scoreline that silenced the home crowd.

IEM Rio Major 2022 Challengers StageBest of 1 Bad News EaglesMatchpage 16 3 31st October 2022 00NATION 16Vertigo 3

Bad News Eagles	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Rigon 'rigoN' GashirigoN	21 - 8	+13	97.6	1.67
Sener 'SENER1' MahmutiSENER1	18 - 8	+10	98.7	1.66
Flatron 'juanflatroo' Halimijuanflatroo	19 - 12	+7	112.9	1.55
Dionis 'sinnopsyy' Budecisinnopsyy	15 - 10	+5	101.2	1.54
Genc 'gxx-' Kolgecigxx-	15 - 7	+8	61.3	1.27

00NATION	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Santino 'try' Rigaltry	13 - 18	-5	70.8	0.87
Bruno 'latto' Rebelattolatto	12 - 17	-5	70.9	0.77
Epitacio 'TACO' de MeloTACO	10 - 19	-9	72.7	0.76
Marcelo 'coldzera' Davidcoldzera	7 - 17	-10	45.3	0.47
Eduardo 'dumau' Wolkmerdumau	3 - 17	-14	30.2	0.28

Group Challengers Stage 1W - 0L Bad News Eagles GamerLegion MOUZ 0W - 0L fnatic Cloud9 Vitality BIG OG FURIA Evil Geniuses Imperial IHC Grayhound 0W - 1L Outsiders 9z 00NATION Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo Age: 27 Team: 00NATION Rating 1.0: 0.92 Maps played: 1437 KPR: 0.61 DPR: 0.65 00NATION #27 Marcelo 'coldzera' DavidEduardo 'dumau' WolkmerEpitacio 'TACO' de MeloBruno 'latto' RebelattoSantino 'try' Rigal Rigon 'rigoN' Gashi Age: 23 Team: Bad News Eagles Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 437 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.73 Bad News Eagles #24 Sener 'SENER1' MahmutiFlatron 'juanflatroo' HalimiDionis 'sinnopsyy' BudeciGenc 'gxx-' KolgeciRigon 'rigoN' Gashi