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.
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 Eagles
Matchpage 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 |
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
