With the Spring CS:GO Major of 2020 delayed to the Autumn due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the qualification system for the event has changed completely. With there being over a year between the two Majors, it was deemed necessary to put everyone’s place back up for grabs to see who will head to Rio in November.
What is the ESL One Rio Major
ESL One: Rio 2020 was initially scheduled to take place in May 2020 as the spring 2020 Major, however due to the COVID-19 outbreak, it was delayed to November 2020 (the dates of the autumn Major). This will be the seventh CS:GO Major organised by ESL, the last being IEM Katowice held in spring 2019.
This postponement means there will be just one CS:GO Major in 2020, with the event holding a $2,000,000 prize pool, the largest ever for CS:GO. The Major is set to be held from November 9 – 22, with the final eight teams taking part in the Champions stage held at the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro on November 19 - 22.
New CS:GO Major qualification structure
Due to there being over a year (428 days) between the end of the StarLadder Berlin Major and the start of the ESL Rio Major, a new qualification structure has been introduced to make sure the attending teams have maintained their position at the top of CS:GO competition.
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Moving away from the system of returning invites and the Minor circuit just before a Major, Valve have introduced Regional Major Ranking (RMR) tournaments. These events allocate points that qualify teams to the Major, and determine which stage they enter at. There are eight invite spots available for each of the Legends, Challengers and Contenders tiers.
Due to the current climate, qualification will be a set of regional competitions rather than global tournaments in order to limit the amount of travel required. As such, the regional breakdown of invites, based on where teams compete, is as follows.
Valve have confirmed there will be three Regional Major Ranking events, the ESL One: Road to Rio currently underway, an event later in the summer and one in the autumn just before the Major. Points have also been given to teams that finished in the top 16 of the Berlin Major. The tournaments closer to the Major will be more valuable points wise than earlier. The point distribution of the Regional Major qualifier events is listed in the table below.
CS:GO Regional Major Ranking Points Distribution
Throughout the RMR qualifiers, teams are allowed to change two members of their playing roster in the lead up to an event. Each change, however, will cost 20% of their accumulated points. Teams are however not allowed to move regions at any time during the RMR qualifiers. To do so would see the team forfeit their entire points tally for the November Major.
ESL One Road to Rio: The first Regional Major Ranking tournament
The first RMR event will be ESL One: Road to Rio, hosting 56 teams over the six regions competing for those Major spots. Each region’s event is different, with varying numbers of competing teams and prize pool. All tournaments are set to take place on varying dates over April and May.
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The full format for each regional tournament is yet to be announced. All matches in the Road to Rio will be best-of-three.
The list of regions, tournament sizes, dates and prize pools are as follows:
CS:GO Regional Major Ranking (RMR) Tournaments
ESL One Road to Rio: Team list
For each region, ESL determined the team list fairly simply. First, they invited the teams that were scheduled to attend the Spring Major and Minors, and if there were remaining spaces handed invites to teams next in line on the Minor closed qualifiers. If, as happened in the CIS and Asian regions, there were more teams at the same qualification level then to-be-announced tiebreaker matches are set to be played.
So far, the full list of teams for each region are as follows:
ESL One Road to Rio: Europe
The 16 teams competing in the European region of the Road to Rio are:
ESL One: Road to Rio: European Teams
ESL One Road to Rio: CIS
The 12 teams competing in the CIS region of the Road to Rio are:
ESL One: Road to Rio: CIS Teams
* - Team to be determined through final qualifier tiebreaker match
ESL One Road to Rio: North America
The 12 teams competing in the North American region of the Road to Rio are:
ESL One: Road to Rio: North American Teams
ESL One Road to Rio: South America
The four teams competing in the South American region of the Road to Rio are:
ESL One: Road to Rio: South American Teams
ESL One Road to Rio: Asia
The eight teams competing in the Asian region of the Road to Rio are:
ESL One: Road to Rio: Asian Teams
* - Team to be determined through final qualifier tiebreaker match
ESL One Road to Rio: Oceania
The four teams competing in the Oceanic region of the Road to Rio are:
ESL One: Road to Rio: Oceanic Teams
The first ESL: Road to Rio qualifier event will commence April 22, and the final game will take place on May 17. Streaming information will be announced closer to each event. More information can be found on the ESL website.
