NRG due for Santiago after dominant reverse-sweep over MIBR

In one of the most dominant reverse-sweeps in the history of competitive Valorant, NRG NRG North America Rank #1 keiko Georgio Sanassy brawk Brock Somerhalder mada Adam Pampuch skuba Logan Jenkins Ethan Ethan Arnold fought its way back from down two maps to defeat MIBR MIBR Brazil Rank #8 zekken Zachary Patrone tex Ian Botsch Mazino Roberto Rivas Verno Andrew Maust aspas Erick Santos and qualify for Masters Santiago. The reigning world champions eliminated the Americas region's newest superteam, which had three best-of-five opportunities to qualify but have now become the second team in the new Kickoff format to fall from the Upper Finalists to fourth place.

The series was played out on MIBR's pick of Bind, NRG's pick of Corrode, MIBR's pick of Split, NRG's Abyss, and the decider map, Haven.

MIBR won Bind 13-9 and Corrode 13-5, and NRG responded by winning Split 13-10, Abyss 13-4, and Haven 13-5. NRG allowed just nine rounds through the final two maps, and just nine rounds through the final five halves of the series.

The map ban process saw both teams eliminate what could be regarded as their opponents' stronger maps, with MIBR banning Pearl and NRG banning Breeze.

Play began on MIBR's pick of Bind, where the key difference between the two teams was put on full display. While MIBR opted for a double-Duelist comp that brings out the strength of having both aspas and zekken , NRG went for mada as the solo Waylay surrounded by a double-Initiator comp.

MIBR started the map on defense, and seemed to have the perfect read on how NRG wanted to play out its attack. After losing the pistol, MIBR won five straight rounds, standing strong against the NRG attack. The struggles forced NRG head coach bonkar to burn both of his timeouts just seven rounds into the map. His intervention did result in his team managing to close out the half at an even 6-6.

MIBR dominated to open its attack half, thanks to a leading performance from aspas. After suffering a slow start to the event, aspas seemed to have shown flashes of his former self on Bind, putting up numbers consistently en route to a map-high 24 kills.

After clutching map point thanks to a 1v3 from aspas, MIBR closed out the map three points later.

The series moved to Corrode, a map that was one of NRG's strongest in its 2026 run. Both teams ran with a solo Waylay, double-Initiator, double-Controller comp. To open the map, NRG looked to be in control. Starting on defense, which tends to be its stronger side, NRG won the pistol round and rolled that into a bonus round to claim a 3-0 lead. From there, MIBR looked changed for the better, with in-game leader Verno 's microadjustments seeming to throw NRG for a loop.

MIBR won eight of the remaining nine rounds in its attack half to enter halftime up 8-4. MIBR's resilience even when going a man down was the theme of the map, as it gave up first blood nine times yet claimed 13 total rounds. MIBR pulled off a near-clean sweep of the NRG attack, going 5-1 on defense to close out the map 13-5.

On MIBR's pick of Split, the double-Duelist and the double-Initiator ideas clashed once again. Early on, it felt as though the MIBR double-Duelist approach with zekken on Yoru and aspas and Raze as superior. An NRG pistol was flipped thanks to a force-buy of four Stingers, which put enough of a dent in NRG's economy to earn MIBR four straight rounds. NRG never found an answer for MIBR's attack, but it wasn't an answer they needed, it was a response.

From down 9-3, NRG picked apart the MIBR defense, steadily navigating through the map by winning five straight before MIBR got back on the board. While both teams did their due diligence by providing Duelists with Operators, NRG's double-Initiator comp was quick to break those angles to create space.

After being four rounds away from closing out the series, MIBR seemed unable to get a grip on the map, letting it slip away 13-10.

With the threat of a reverse-sweep looming, NRG's map pick of Abyss may not have been its strongest map, but was arguably one of MIBR's weakest. MIBR was 1-2 on the map through Kickoff, but the worrying trend was its 3-21 record on defense against FURIA FURIA Brazil Rank #4 nerve Michael Yerrow artzin Arthur Araujo eeiu Daniel Vucenovic koalanoob Gianfranco Potestio alym Torogul Baidyldaev and NRG in those two losses.

The weaker defense meant MIBR needed a strong attack half, but that proved to be difficult against NRG's double-Controller comp, armed with plenty of plant denial utility with Ethan on Tejo, skuba on Viper, and brawk on Sova. NRG opened the map with more yet another strong pistol, starting the map 6-0.

MIBR salvaged three rounds to end its attack, but NRG proved to be far too clinical on its own attack. A pistol round was followed up by a win against a force-buy, which soon after rolled into a 13-4 win for NRG.

With all of the momentum in the server, NRG won its fifth-straight pistol of the series to begin what went on to become utter domination. Across the board, NRG seemed to always have the perfect stack to counter MIBR's attack, with brawk's Odin tearing apart health bars on barrier drop.

NRG didn't even need an Operator until round 11, wiping the Haven floor clean with MIBR by claiming an 11-1 halftime lead. Consolation was the most that MIBR could find at the end of its attack half. With a world of work left to do on defense, MIBR claimed just its third pistol round of the series to claim three of the first four rounds on defense, but that meant series point for NRG.

MIBR did well to play against lower NRG buys, but with little room for error, a round in which several ultimates were invested ended with NRG on top.

aspas had a series-high 1.17 rating and 82 kills, and his IGL Verno had 76 kills of his own, but the performances alone were not enough for MIBR. NRG was led by brawk, who had a team-high 1.11 rating, while mada's 77 kills were the highest for the winning squad.

NRG punches its ticket to Masters Santiago with the opportunity to prove itself on the international stage once again, while MIBR becomes just the second team to fall from a Kickoff Upper Final to fourth place. MIBR takes home one Championship Point, but will ee out Masters Santiago from home.