Cover Image Courtesy: ESL Gaming - Helena Kristiansson | Thumbnail Image Courtesy: ESL Gaming - Helena Kristiansson
According to a report by dbltap, the first major of 2020 is set to take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil by ESL. The tournament as per speculations has been titled as ‘ESL One Rio Major’ and is scheduled to take place from 11th - 24th May.
ESL is rumoured to be hosting this Major, which will take its tally up to seven, the most number of Majors hosted by any company. This year marked the return of ESL to hosting a Major with IEM Katowice 2019 taking place around Feb - March, after being absent from the scene for almost three years.
The Americas as a region has hosted a few Majors in the past but if the rumours come out to be true then this will be the very first Major to be held in South America. Brazil as a Counter-Strike playing region is really big and passionate with some of the best teams in the world coming from this region.
The country had earlier this year hosted DreamHack Open Rio de Janeiro 2019 at the Parque Olimpico, but the event was not all that great as it witnessed a lot of technical problems, leading to the cancellation of the PUBG and Rainbow Six tournaments.
But events have been held in the country in the past as well with ESL Pro League Season 4 - Finals taking place in Sao Paulo in 2016 which was a huge success and witnessed the Brazilian team SK Gaming finish as the runners up in front of the home crowd, and ESL One: Belo Horizonte taking place in 2018.
Fans Cheering At ESL One: Belo Horizonte 2018 | ESL Gaming - Carlton Beener
It is still not certain whether the Major will be held in Rio or now, these rumours started making a wave ever since Oleksandr ‘S1mple’ Kostyliev said on an Instagram live session that the next Major would be held in Brazil, while it can be confirmed by dbltap that Brazil was considered as a location for the tournament during ESL One: New York in September, nothing concrete can be said as of now.
