IEM Rio 2022: First CS:GO Major in South America Announced

Vignesh Raghuram
Updated On: 24 May 2022, 05:34 PM

<div class="paragraphs"><p>IEM Rio 2022 Major Announced</p></div>

Highlights

IEM Rio 2022 has been announced as the next CS:GO Major of 2022.

The tournament will take place in the Jeunesse Arena, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from Oct. 31 to Nov. 13 and features a $1M USD prize pool.

This will be the first CS:GO Major in Brazil and South America, following the cancellation of the ESL One: Rio 2020 Major.

The Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Rio 2022 has been confirmed as the next CS:GO Major for this season. ESL has revealed that it will be hosting the second CS:GO Major of 2022, featuring a $1M USD prize pool in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The prestigious CS:GO tournament is scheduled to start on Oct. 31 and conclude on Nov. 13.

The IEM Rio Major 2022 will open its doors for spectators during the playoffs scheduled to take place on Nov. 10 - 13, and tickets for the event will go on sale on May 25. It is set to take place in the Jeunesse Arena, which has a capacity of 15,430 people for sports and up to 18,768 for concerts, according to Wikipedia.

IEM Rio 2022: All You Need to Know

Prize Pool: $1M

Dates: Oct. 31 to Nov. 13

Venue: Jeunesse Arena, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Rio de Janeiro was supposed to host the ESL One: Rio 2020. Unfortunately, the tournament needed to be canceled due to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it looks like the fans in Brazil are finally going to be treated to the very best that CS:GO has to offer, in a LAN event. Fans who kept the tickets for the ESL One: Rio 2020 tournament without refunding it, will be able to use the same tickets to attend the IEM Rio 2022.

This will be the second Intel Extreme Masters Major in CS:GO history, with the first taking place in Katowice in 2019. It is currently unclear on whether this will be part of the 2022 ESL Pro Tour.

The format of the tournament will be the same as the previous majors with RMR events being used to determine the 24 teams attending the Major. The IEM Rio 2022 Major will kick off with the Challengers stage where eight of 16 teams will proceed to the Legends stage. They’ll be joined by eight teams with Legend status and only eight will progress to the playoffs, called the Champions stage aka the Playoffs.

IEM Rio 2022 is the third ESL tournament to take place in Brazil, but is the first CS:GO Major to ever count South America as its home following the ESL One: Belo Horizonte 2018 and the ESL Pro League Season 4 - Finals.

Published On: 24 May 2022, 05:34 PM

Vignesh Raghuram

Vignesh has been covering the esports industry for nearly 5 years starting with the early days of the DPC. His industry expertise includes experience in Dota 2, CS:GO and Mobile Esports coverage.

CS:GO Tournament Announcement IEM Rio 2022 CS:GO Major