As predicted, Vitality triumphed over G2 Esports in the upper bracket semifinal of Group A at IEM Rio 2026. The French squad took the series 2–1, securing a spot in the playoffs.
Surprisingly, it was a very close series — Vitality lost the first map but managed to win the second and third by narrow margins. Despite finishing the series with fewer total rounds than G2, they still came out on top.
IEM Rio 2026 runs from April 13 to 19. Sixteen teams are competing for a $300,000 prize pool and the championship title. All matches except the grand final are played in a best-of-three format, while the final is best-of-five.
A CS2 digest: nafany is no longer tied to AMKAL, Russia has the biggest player representation at PGL Astana 2026, and apEX missed the BLAST Rivals Spring 2026 all-star lineup.
A CS2 digest: Cache quickly became the standout map after release, Aurora is expected to keep its Turkish lineup, Luminosity and TSM are eyeing 3DMAX, and broky topped the AWP chart at BLAST Rivals.
A CS2 digest: Team Vitality swept NAVI in the BLAST Rivals Spring 2026 final, ZywOo became the second player to reach a +10,000 K/D difference, and donk played more Dota 2 pubs than CS2 FACEIT maps in April.
NaVi defeated FaZe to reach the BLAST final, GamerLegion knocked out Astralis, and BOROS was suspended from a Chinese event.
A CS2 digest: IEM Atlanta 2026 opening matchups were revealed, BIG paused its women’s roster, HObbit became a free agent, and FaZe eliminated G2 from BLAST Rivals Spring 2026.
A CS2 digest: Vitality reached the BLAST Rivals semifinal, Devilwalk joined ALGO, FUT is set to bring back lauNX, and HOTU signed kade0.
A CS2 digest: BLAST Rivals Spring 2026 opening results, FUT ending Vitality’s Dust2 streak, and Cache joining CS2.
