Rio de Janeiro will host ESL’s second CS:GO Major in 2022. The IEM Rio Major will run from October 31 to November 13, featuring playoffs at the Jeunesse Arena. The 15,000-seat Jeunesse Arena has hosted esports tournaments, including the 2017 League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational and the 2018 Rainbow Six Siege Season 8 Pro League finals.
IEM Rio Major will feature 24 teams and offer $1 million, the same as PGL Major Antwerp. The Major’s qualification process will be announced soon. The IEM Rio Major will be ESL’s eighth CS:GO Major but its first since IEM Katowice 2019. StarLadder will host the next two Majors, in Stockholm (2021) and Antwerp (2022). (2022). The Rio Major was originally scheduled for May 2020 but was postponed owing to the worldwide health crisis.
ESL hopes to capitalize on CS:popularity GO’s in Brazil, which has one of the game’s most devoted communities. Portuguese-language streams were second most popular during the Antwerp Major with 734,880 viewers.
Alexandre ‘gAuLeS’ Borba set a new record for Portuguese-language streams on May 16 with over 700,000 concurrent views during the Antwerp Major duel between Imperial and Cloud9. IEM Rio Major tickets go on sale Wednesday, May 25 at 6pm BST. One-day early-bird tickets cost R$90 ($18.79), while Lounge tickets cost R$1,999 ($417.35)
