9z defeat Bravos at FiReLEAGUE Latin Power Fall

With this victory, 9z secured a spot at the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown.

The current home of storied Brazilian in-game leader Bruno "⁠BIT⁠" Fukuda Lima, 9z upset the field as the fourth ranked team at the event to secure victory. Currently on a five-event winning streak, the team have been steadily climbing the rankings in their region in recent months, and will relish the opportunity to prove themselves amongst an international field.

9z faced Liberty in their semi-final. After a hard fought, triple overtime Overpass went the way of Liberty, 9z took the series by the scruff of the neck and closed out the next two maps with relatively little fuss, 16-12 on Nuke and 16-11 on Dust2. Santino "⁠try⁠" Rigal in particular stood out for the South American roster, posting just shy of 100 frags in the series.

BIT's team secured only their second appearance at an international event

This granted 9z a grand final against Bravos, and this series was not as close an affair as some might have expected. Bravos comfortably took their own pick of Ancient 16-8, before 9z proceeded to thrash them on Nuke, 16-4. This took us to the decider of Dust2, where 9z produced a decisive performance, taking it comfortably 16-9.

Once again try was towards the top of the scoreboard for 9z, but was overshadowed in this series by Maximiliano "⁠max⁠" Gonzalez, who posted an impressive 1.37 rating.

With this victory 9z join the six teams already qualified for the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown, which takes place October 12-17, with not only a $162,500 prize pool on offer but also two spots at the BLAST Premier Fall Final. The six currently qualified will be joined by the winners of Fragadelphia Fall, the six teams who do not make it out of their BLAST Premier Fall groups, and two invited teams.

The current team list can be found below:

Fiend
Dignitas
Movistar Riders
MAD Lions ViCi
9z
POGGERZ Movistar Riders #47 Alejandro 'alex' MasanetAlejandro 'mopoz' Fernández-Quejo CanoRaúl 'DeathZz' Jordán NietoÁlvaro 'SunPayus' GarcíaDavid 'dav1g' Granado Bermudo Liberty #73 Victor 'remix' MonteiroMichael 'dok' MarquesAlexandre 'ALLE' SantosRodrigo 'drg' AusenkaFelipe 'skullz' Medeiros MAD Lions #51 Johannes 'b0RUP' BorupThomas 'TMB' BundsbækVolodymyr 'Woro2k' VeletniukPere 'sausol' Solsona SaumellJustinas 'jL' Lekavicius 9z #74 Bruno 'BIT' Fukuda LimaMaximiliano 'max' GonzalezFranco 'dgt' GarciaMartin 'rox' MolinaSantino 'try' Rigal Dignitas #36 Patrik 'f0rest' LindbergAdam 'friberg' FribergJonas 'Lekr0' OlofssonHåkon 'hallzerk' FjærliLudvig 'HEAP' Alonso Bravos #50 Adriano 'WOOD7' CeratoMatheus 'Tuurtle' AnhaiaDaniel 'danoco' MorgadoLeonardo 'Leomonster' EnriqueJhonatan 'JOTA' Willian ViCi #57 Zhuo 'advent' LiangWeiJie 'zhokiNg' ZhongZhiHong 'aumaN' LiuAndrew 'kaze' KhongYi 'JamYoung' Yang Bruno 'BIT' Fukuda Lima Age: 31 Team: 9z Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 666 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.65 Fiend #32 Kamen 'bubble' KostadinovViktor 'v1c7oR' DyankovSimeon 'dream3r' GanevHristiyan 'REDSTAR' PironkovDeyvid 'h4rn' Benchev Maximiliano 'max' Gonzalez Age: 22 Team: 9z Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 433 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.67 POGGERZ #151 Nikola 'Lobanjica' MijomanovićTim 'nawwk' JonassonShuaib 'D0cC' AhmadAhmad 'SpAwNnS' KanaanKais 'KD69z' Abduljawad Santino 'try' Rigal Age: 16 Team: 9z Rating 1.0: 1.17 Maps played: 198 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.60