IEM Rio Major 2022: Initial Seeding and Challengers Stage Opening Matchups

All the four qualifier tournaments for the IEM RIo Major 2022 have concluded with 24 teams locked in for the main tournament, segregated into three equal parts between Contenders, Challengers, and Legends.

16 teams have made their way through the two European RMR tournaments, six teams through the American RMR tournament, and two teams from the Asia-Pacific RMR tournament.

The biggest celebration came on the last day of the American RMR tournament when Imperial Esports managed to claim the very last slot for the Rio Major after winning four consecutive do-or-die matches.

With the teams set in place, the tournament organizers have released the initial seeding for the Challengers Stage along with information about the opening matchups.

IEM Rio Major 2022: Initial Seedings of CS:GO Teams

Each team that has qualified for the Rio Major has been assigned a specific seeding in accordance with the official Major rulebook set by Valve. Based on these seedings, the initial matchups for all stages of the tournament are decided - Challengers Stage, Legends Stage, Champions Stage.

All teams are assigned a seeding prior to the event based on the earlier results of their region's representatives from previous Major CS:GO tournaments. For the Rio Major, the final ranking of various teams from their respective regions will be taken into consideration.

Based on this, the complete initial seeding order for all teams across different stages of the tournament is as follows,

Challengers Stage

1. OG

2. Team Vitality

3. Evil Geniuses

4. Cloud9

5. BIG

6. Bad News Eagles

7. MOUZ

8. Team 9z

9. GamerLegion

10. Outsiders

11. 00NATION

12. FURIA

13. Fnatic

14. IHC Esports

15. Imperial Esports

16. Grayhound

Legends Stage

1. FaZe Clan

2. Natus Vincere

3. Ninjas in Pyjamas

4. ENCE

5. Sprout

6. Heroic

7. Team Spirit

8. Team Liquid

9. Seedings for the next eight teams will be determined on the basis of their results from the Challengers Stage.

IEM Rio Major 2022: Challengers Stage Opening Matchups

On the basis of the initial seedings mentioned above the opening matches of the Challengers Stage have been set accordingly for the Rio Major. The top-seeded team takes on its bottom-seed counterpart, for eg. the team with fourth initial seeding will be matched against the team with the thirteenth initial seeding.

This method will be used to determine the matchups for the first two rounds across both Challengers Stage and Legends Stage.

Challengers Stage - Round 1 Matchups

1. OG vs Grayhound

2. Vitality vs Imperial

3. Evil Geniuses vs IHC Esports

4. Cloud9 vs Fnatic

5. BIG vs FURIA

6. Bad News Eagles vs 00NATION

7. MOUZ vs Outsiders

8. 9z vs GamerLegion

The IEM Rio Major 2022 is all set to take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 31^st October to 13^th November, featuring the second highest prize pool for a CS:GO Major - $1,250,000 USD.