ESL confirms IEM Rio 2022 CSGO Major

ESL has announced that it will host the second CS:GO Major of 2022 in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, as reported by Dexerto in January.

The IEM Rio Major will take place between October 31 and November 13, with the playoffs being held in front of an audience at the Jeunesse Arena in the final four days of the competition.

The Jeunesse Arena, which has a capacity of around 15,000 for sporting events, has staged a number of esports tournaments in the past, most notably the 2017 League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational and the 2018 Rainbow Six Siege Season 8 Pro League finals.

Twenty-four teams will be in attendance at the IEM Rio Major, with $1 million up for grabs — the same prize purse that was at stake at PGL Major Antwerp. Details about the qualifying process for the Major should be announced in the coming weeks.

The IEM Rio Major will be ESL’s tenth CS:GO Major but only its first since IEM Katowice 2019, with StarLadder hosting that year’s second Major, in Berlin, and PGL the following two, in Stockholm (2021) and Antwerp (2022). The Rio Major was initially due to be held in May 2020 under the name ‘ESL One: Rio Major’ before being postponed amid the global health crisis.

“We couldn’t be more excited to finally bring the Major to Rio de Janeiro,” said Ulrich Schulze, SVP Product Management at ESL Gaming. “The ever-growing and passionate Brazilian esports community is amazing and for the past couple of years we have been hoping to provide the fans with one of the greatest esports experiences ever.

“Now the time is finally here and we can’t wait for the world’s best CS:GO teams to ultimately enter the Jeunesse Arena and have it shake to its foundations from the excitement from Brazil and beyond.”

A thriving community

ESL will be looking to capitalize on the popularity of CS:GO in Brazil, which boasts one of the game’s biggest and most passionate communities. Portuguese-language streams were the second most popular during the Antwerp Major with a peak viewership of 734,880, according to statistics website Esports Charts.

• Read more: PGL Major Antwerp breaks 2 million viewer mark in FaZe vs NAVI final

Brazilian streamer Alexandre ‘gAuLeS’ Borba set on May 16 a new record for Portuguese-language streamers with over 700,000 concurrent viewers during the Antwerp Major clash between Imperial — a Brazilian team featuring high-profile and storied players like Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo, Fernando ‘fer’ Alvarenga, and Lincoln ‘fnx’ Lau — and Cloud9.

“Intel is very proud to bring Intel Extreme Masters back to Brazil — and this time as a CS:GO Major so our local gaming community can experience firsthand one of the top CS:GO tournaments in the world,” said Carlos Augusto Buarque, marketing director at Intel Brazil.

“Gaming happens with Intel, and we have increasingly sought to offer the best technologies to gamers around the world. Brazil is one of Intel’s key markets in the world and when it comes to gaming, 3 out of 4 Brazilians play electronic games, so being part of the organization of an event as big as this one is very important for us”.

Tickets for the IEM Rio Major will go on sale on Wednesday, May 25, at 6pm BST, with prices ranging from R$90 ($18.79) for one-day, early-bird tickets for Thursday and Friday to R$1,999 ($417.35) for Lounge tickets.