The changes to the qualification process will add a new closed qualifier step as well as a regional ranking to all teams.

The biggest change will take place in Asia, where the Regional Major Ranking (RMR) event will have the number of attending teams doubled from four to eight.

Reports began to circle after the IEM Rio Major ended in November, as Valve announced its intentions to rework the RMR system.

Now that the closed qualifiers will be the main road into the regional events, many of the teams will begin their journey from that step, avoiding the unpredictable online brackets.

Although Valve is yet to release the details on the new regional ranking system, the invitations to the closed qualifiers will be decided by the ‘Regional Standing’.

Valve has also confirmed that the closed bracket must follow the RMR format, with the number of attending teams being twice the number of RMR spots available from the event.

Each region (Europe, America, Asia) must hold one closed qualifier, although events can be split in order to accommodate the ping of participating teams.

With the introduction of the closed qualifiers before the RMRs, we expect the qualification period to kick off earlier than usual for the next Major in Paris, before the Challengers Stage begins on May 8.

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?FURIA, being the only Brazilian team to reach the tournament’s quarterfinal stage, received immense support from the home crowd, with notable chants driven towards the Andrei “arT” Piovezan-led team. Their victory over CS:GO powerhouse NaVi was a heated encounter that saw viewers from across the world spellbound.

In the matchup, NaVi were favorites to win the game and advance to the semifinals. The effective FURIA roster had a different plan as they rampaged through their counterpart despite losing the first map. The game ended with FURIA snatching back-to-back wins in the subsequent maps, ending the game with a 2-1 scoreline in front of their ever-proud home audience.? ?While they had good momentum after beating NaVi, FURIA could not match Heroic in the final four.

The viewership revelation was made by Esports Charts via the data company’s official Twitter page. While the firm noted the high viewership garnered by the grand final fixture, it revealed that it was not the most watched match of the tournament.? ?

“1.14M Peak Viewers on #IEM Rio Major Grand Finals – @heroicgg vs Outsiders,” Esports Charts tweet read.? ?

“The 2nd most popular match in the Major. @IEM @ESLCS @CSGO”

?The grand final was reported to have recorded a peak viewership of 1.14 million across various online streaming platforms. According to Esports Charts, the NaVi vs FURIA match topped that figure with a peak of 1.38 million concurrent viewers.? ?

“1.38M Peak Viewers on #IEM Rio Major 2022 @natusvincere vs @FURIA is the most popular match of the event,” Esports Charts wrote.? ?

“Grand Finals peak – 1.14M, @heroicgg vs Outsiders. @ESLCS #CSGO”?

?Esports Charts also reported that the IEM Rio Major 2022 is the first event in the franchise’s history to not attain peak viewership during its grand final. It was also reported that the tournament had the third-best peak viewership in Counter-Strike history, with only PGL Major Antwerp 2022 (2.1 million) and PGL Major Stockholm 2021 (2.74 million) posting better numbers.

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As the whole world witnessed the Russian team lift the Rio Major trophy at the Jeunesse Arena in Brazil with US$500,000 in prize money, the AWPer took to the stage to receive his first-ever MVP award.? ?

?In the grand final, Jame’s calls for Outsiders were decisive and largely effective. He was also one of the best players in the tournament on an individual basis, averaging a 1.30 rating throughout the Legends Stage and the Champions Stage.

The in-game leader’s overall rating was the third-best record in the entirety of the tournament. However, he led in several other metrics, including a K/D difference of +98 and a tournament-low death per round ratio of 0.46. He also topped the board on total AWP kills with 168, posting the most kills per round by an AWP (0.54) and KAST (79.6 percent).?

?Heading into the grand finals, Outsiders’ 19-year-old boy wonder Pyotr “fame” Bolyshev and Heroics stars Casper “cadiaN” M?ller and Martin “stavn” Lund were favorites to win the top individual award at the IEM Rio Major. ?Upon receiving his award, Jame thanked his teammates for riding out with him and also appreciated the fans for their continuous support.

He also took to his Twitter page to react to the championship title win and his MVP award: “We made it, thank you for your support, it means a lot to me.”

Jame was not the only standout for Outsiders in the grand final. Evgeniy “FL1T” Lebedev recorded the most kills in the series with 52, leaving fame in second place (44) and Jame in third (37).?

?Since Jame’s professional CS:GO career started in 2017, the IEM Rio Major MVP award is the greatest individual honour he has received. In 2021, HLTV pegged the Russian as the 10th-best player in the world, the highest he has been ranked.? ?He was also awarded by HLTV the MVP title of the BLAST Pro Series Moscow 2019 and the cs_summit 7 in 2021.

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The Dzhami “Jame” Ali-led team capped their impressive campaign at the Rio Major with a decisive 2-0 victory over the favorites. According to GG Bet, Outsiders were $2.27 underdogs coming into the game, with Heroic pegged as $1.70 favourites.

Prior to the grand final, all five players on the Outsiders roster had yet to win a Major trophy in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. ?On the roster, Jame, Aleksei “Qikert” Golubev, and coach Dastan “dastan” Aqbaev had come close to winning a Major at StarLadder Berlin 2019, where they competed under the AVANGAR banner and lost to Astralis in the final. However, for 19-year-old rifler Pyotr “fame” Bolyshev, this is his first Major appearance. ?

?The first map of the grand final, Mirage, as chosen by Outsiders, recorded a close first half, with Heroic putting up a good fight. However, Outsiders claimed the map, having taken control on the CT side with Jame, fame, and Evgeniy “FL1T” Lebedev, who totaled an impressive 70 kills on the map. Outsiders proceeded to win the map with a 16-12 record.?

?The second map, Overpass, although chosen by Heroic, saw the Danish-Norwegian franchise struggle to find any openings on the T side. By the end of the first half of the map, Outsiders were in the lead with a 12-3 scoreline, largely due to their outright dominance on the CT side.? ?Heroic tried to stage a comeback, but it was impossible as Outsiders took command of the first buy round and powered their way to a 16-5 win to seal the title.

??Outsiders’ run in the Rio Major has been shocking, as they had previously failed to get a positive outcome at any international tournament since bearing the Outsiders name. Prior to Rio, their best run at a major event came in ESL Pro League Season 16, where they were eliminated in the quarterfinals by the eventual champions, Team Vitality.

?Heroic are expected to dust off the loss and look forward to exerting their dominance in the 2023 season. They have proven themselves to be the next Danish powerhouse, with Astralis struggling since the return of Majors in 2021.?

?Heroics’ young roster wields a lot of promise, with only their in-game leader Casper “cadiaN” M?ller aged above 20 years. They have been consistent, being the only team outside of FURIA and NAVI to appear in the playoffs in three consecutive Majors.

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Outsiders played the first quarter-final of the Champions Stage in Rio de Janeiro, where they took down Fnatic in quick 2-0 fashion, to roll on into the semi-finals.

The majority-Russian team took Fnatic’s map pick,16-11, after they shot out to a quick 10-5 lead at half-time.

Outsiders were given a bit more of contest in the second half of map one by Fnatic, but ultimately the first half lead was too great for Fnatic to threaten the world no.6.

The second map, Mirage, turned out to be much of the same as the first map, with Outsiders taking a 9-6 first half lead, however, they then put the foot down in the second half to run out 16-8 winners and punched their ticket into the semi-final.

Outsiders were lead by their rifler, Evgenii “FL1T” Lebedev, who amassed the server-high rating of 1.41 out of 2, recording 43 kills and 29 deaths in their swift 2-0 victory.

In a post-match interview the Outsiders in-game leader, Dzhami “Jame” Ali, spoke about how tough it was to beat Fnatic.

“You couldn’t see this because of the score, but playing versus Fnatic was hard.”

Jame explained post-match that even though the scoreboard looked like it was an easy win to Outsiders, there was nothing easy about it for his team.

Outsiders next opponent in the semi-finals will be MOUZ, who upset the online bookmakers favourite, Cloud9, in a thrilling three-map series.

Cloud9 came out looking the goods in the first map, Inferno, by running away with a 16-11 win on MOUZ’s map pick to start the series.

Many people were thinking that this could be another swift 2-0 victory to the favourites.

However, MOUZ started the second map, Overpass, with a renewed fire in their belly as they rattled off six consecutive round in a row on their Counter-terrorist side, to shoot out to a 6-0 lead early.

At the half-time break, Cloud9 had rallied back slightly to go into the break down 5-10, but MOUZ once again started the second half strong, winning the first four rounds to go up 14-5 and looked as though we were destined for a third map in a matter of minutes.

Cloud9 did get themselves back into the second map but ultimately they couldn’t overturn the nine round deficit and MOUZ took the second map 16-13, sending the series to a third and final map on Ancient.

MOUZ had the momentum, the crowd and the luck on their side as they destroyed Cloud9 on Ancient, running out 16-8 winners in the final map to book a date with Outsiders in the semi-finals and send the world no.5 home from IEM Rio.

This MOUZ roster is the first roster to make the semi-finals of any Major in their organisation’s history, with their superstar rifler, David “frozen” Cernansky, leading his young team to another upset at the IEM Rio Major with massive 1.40 plus ratings in their two map wins.

Outsiders and MOUZ will face each other in the first semi-final on Saturday at 14:00pm BRT, where Outsiders are $1.57 favourites with GG Bet to take out the best-of-three series.

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?Heroic enter the IEM Rio Major playoffs following a solid 3-1 run through the Legends Stage. Heroic’s only loss came against Cloud9, who bested them 2-0 in the second round, but despite the tough defeat, Heroic have played well in their wins against the Outsiders (16-9), Fnatic (16-2), and Team Liquid (2-1).

But we’ve seen it all before – Heroic will look great in groups, only to flatter in the knockout stage, earning the Danish CS:GO squad a tag of chokers. But this time out, it seems different.

Team Spirit finished the IEM Rio Major group stage in sixth place, with wins against Bad News Eagles, Sprout, and Team Liquid and two defeats against FURIA Esports and Outsiders. Decent results, but realistically, Spirit’s only notable victory came against Team Liquid.

Talent-wise, Heroic are a better team, and they’ve shown significantly more throughout the group stage, making it very hard to doubt them. You could only doubt Heroic because they tend to slip in the knockout stages, but that’s hardly a good reason to fade the Danish powerhouse.

?Natus Vincere had a rough time in the group stage and were facing elimination only three rounds deep. They kicked off the tournament with a victory against Team Vitality (25-21) but then fell against Cloud9 (14-16) and Team Liquid (14-16).

NaVi then found success in the final two rounds, where they defeated Bad News Eagles (2-0) and BIG (2-0) quite convincingly to secure a spot in the playoffs. But their journey to the top will become much tougher on Friday.

Brazil’s last hope, FURIA Esports, have looked incredible so far in this tournament. They had a minor slip-up in the Challengers Stage, where they lost against BIG, but have since not dropped a single game, beating 00Nation, OG, GamerLegion, ENCE, Team Spirit, and BIG in the final round of the Legends Stage.

FURIA have had a fairly easy road to the knockout stage, but that doesn’t take away from their dominant victories. It’s not like we expected FURIA to struggle, but they came into their own at the Major – which likely has to do with the strong support from the stands.

Natus Vincere are a stronger team, but this will be a tough match for the Ukrainian squad, and we don’t expect them to come out unharmed. Expect a competitive match, but ultimately, NaVi should come out ahead.

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The first quarter-final for the IEM Rio Major will feature Outsiders, ranked no.6 in the world, and Fnatic, ranked no.16 in the world. These two met most recently in the IEM Rio Major Challengers Stage, where Outsiders took the series 2-0 (16-1, 16-14).

Outsiders were the third team to qualify for the Champions Stage behind Cloud9 and FURIA. Outsiders lost their first match to Heroic (9-16), before going on to win their next two matches over Ninjas in Pyjamas (16-12) and Team Spirit (16-14). After finishing the first three rounds of the Swiss Stage with a 2-1 record, they were then matched up with another team who has the exact same record and that was MOUZ. However, MOUZ were no match for the majority-Russian team, as they went onto to win 16-10 on both maps to take the series 2-0. The in-game leader Dzhami “Jame” Ali has really stepped up his game at the Major, recording the fourth-best rating of any player at the event (1.30).

Fnatic were the very last team to qualify for the Legends Stage of the IEM Rio Major after beating 9z in the last series of the Challengers Stage. Nevertheless, the boys from Fnatic obviously didn’t see that as a problem as they came out in their first match of the Legends Stage and beat one of the tournament fancies, Ninjas in Pyjamas (16-13). Fnatic ran into Heroic in their second match, just like their opponents for this series, and they were convincingly beaten (2-16). Fnatic were then matched up with ENCE in their final best-of-one series and they breezed past them (16-7). Their fourth and final series of the Legends Stage came against BIG and they turned out to be no match for Fnatic as they took the series 2-0 (16-14, 16-7).

Both of these teams are in great form at the moment and even though Outsiders smashed Fnatic at their most recent clash, we think Fnatic will have taken a lot from that loss and we will see a much closer series on Thursday.

The second quarter-final of the day will be between the bookmakers’ favourite to take out the IEM Rio Major, Cloud9, and MOUZ, who are currently ranked no.7 in the world.

MOUZ were one of the first two teams to qualify for the Legends Stage, with a 3-0 record from their first three series in the Challengers Stage. They were dominant in their first two series of the Challengers Stage, defeating Outsiders (16-6) and Evil Geniuses (16-10), before going on to beat Fnatic in their third series 2-1. MOUZ have had a chequered passage through the Legends Stage, winning their first series over Liquid (16-2), then losing to BIG (7-16). However, they then went onto beat the no.2 team in the world, Vitality, 19-17 in overtime in a very tight contest. They lost their first best-of-three series to Outsiders 0-2, but they then qualified for the Champions Stage by defeating ENCE (2-1). MOUZ would have to be one of the most inconsistent teams to make the Champions Stage, which makes this series against Cloud9 more interesting than it probably should be.

Cloud9 only just qualified for the Challengers Stage after finishing fifth in their RMR and they continued that average form going into their first two matches to start the Challengers Stage, losing to Grayhound (17-19) and Fnatic (17-19). However, those two losses must have woken up the sleeping giant, world number five, as they went onto win three straight series, winning 2-0 over Imperial, Evil Geniuses and GamerLegion. Cloud9 then went onto win another three straight series, making it six in a row now, defeating the world no.1 and no.4 in the Legends Stage, FaZe Clan and Natus Vincere, before defeating Heroic 2-0 to qualify for the Champions Stage. Cloud9 are the most in-form team at IEM Rio and it makes them very tough to bet against, especially as they are now the bookies favourite to take out the Major at $3.75.

Cloud9 should be winning this series over a very inconsistent MOUZ and we expect to see the moneyline favourites to take the series 2-0.

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?C9 put up a magnificent run in the Legends Stage of the tournament, winning all fixtures comfortably. They are only second to FURIA in the standings, who have the same record but better round differential.? ?

In the Challengers Stage, C9 started out poorly, losing their first two outings to Fnatic and Grayhound Gaming. They were one best-of-three game away from exiting the tournament.

But on the brink of elimination, C9 found motivation to hold on as they bested Imperial Esports and went on to their next two matches against Evil Geniuses and GamerLegion to clinch the eighth spot in the standings.?

?Since their turning-point moment against Imperial, C9 have won six consecutive series. They pulled off a clean sweep in the Legends Stage, registering a 3-0 record after defeating top teams like FaZe Clan, Natus Vincere, and most recently Heroic.?

?Cloud9 came into the game against Heroic as close favorites going by their outstanding winning streak. However, Heroic had looked to be in fine form too, having defeated the Outsiders (16-9) in their first-round encounter on the Legends Stage. They had also blasted through Fnatic, breezing through them with a 16-2 record.?

?The best-of-three fixture saw Cloud9 sweep Heroic in Vertigo and Inferno. With a halftime score of 11-4 on Vertigo, it was clear C9 were well prepared against their Danish counterparts, having gone nine straight rounds at the start of the map.? ?

Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov and the lads were sure of winning the opening map going into their CT side in the second half. Dmitriy “sh1ro” Sokolov led the team with 28 kills and only 10 deaths and a magnificent rating of 1.84, as C9 secured a 16-9 victory.? ?

Inferno was a different ballgame as both teams dealt blow for blow, with the first half ending 8-7 in Heroic’s favor. C9’s poor showing came as no surprise because the team had only won about half of their matches in the last three months on Inferno. ??However, they went on a rampage in their T side, securing 9 of 10 rounds in the second half. This got them the lead and eventually the ticket to the Champions Stage.?

?Sh1ro also led the team on Inferno, posting 25 kills and 12 deaths, which led to him registering an even higher rating of 2.08. The Russian player garnered a total of 53 kills in both games and posted a 1.84 rating.?

Another impressive stat was the almost perfect run C9 attained on T sides, claiming 20 of 25 rounds.? ?In the second map, Rasmus “sjuush” Beck led Heroic with 20 frags but recorded the most deaths alongside Jakob “jabbi” Nygaard (21). He secured the most kills (36) on the team, with other players being unable to record more than 30 kills.? ?

While C9 advance to the playoffs, Heroic will now take on Team Liquid for a place in the next stage. The Danes are favorites to win on GG Bet, with odds of $1.74.

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FaZe Clan entered the Rio Major as the top-ranked CS:GO team in the world, after regaining their top spot in the rankings days before they touched down in Brazil.

After losing 14-16 to Cloud9 in a very tight opening series, FaZe were faced with taking on the world number two, Team Vitality, who also lost their opening-round series.

Unfortunately for fans of FaZe Clan, their shock loss in round one was just the beginning of the end, as they were then destroyed by Vitality, 6-16, dropping FaZe into the first elimination series against Bad News Eagles.

Bad News Eagles are ranked 22 spots lower than FaZe Clan and most people could be excused for believing the world number one would simply get the job done quickly and start their recovery.

However, no one told Bad News Eagles.

The world number 23 took the first map 19-16 in overtime, before losing the second map quite convincingly 8-16 to level the series.

The third and final map, Mirage, turned out to be the final time we saw FaZe Clan at IEM Rio, as BNE went on to win 22-20 in overtime.

After being knocked out of the Major, the FaZe Clan in-game leader, Finn “karrigan” Anderson, spoke to the broadcaster and explained that their opponents were just better on the day.

“I think they made some good shots and we did some mistakes,” Anderson said to the broadcaster post-match.

“I think the first time we are playing Vertigo officially hurt us in the end to finish off the rounds, but obviously they played better than us today and that’s why we lose.

“I think we would also lose a lot of rounds of different maps, so I don’t think it was the maps today.”

Anderson also tweeted after the interview, apologising for his poor performance and congratulating FaZe’s opponents on their win.

Over and out, responsibility is on me. Sorry for letting all down. GG WP BNE.

— karrigan (@karriganCSGO) November 6, 2022

The other big-name team to be eliminated from the Legends Stage was Ninjas in Pyjamas, who also failed to secure a win on the first two days of play.

After showing some positive signs throughout the IEM Road to Rio and European RMR, NiP will be left wondering where it all went wrong in Rio.

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?For Imperial, the result marks their second defeat in the Challengers Stage, having been dealt a blow by Team Vitality in their first outing. The Brazilian esports team are on the brink of elimination owing to both losses.?

?Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, Imperial’s in-game leader who was once known for ending opposition campaigns, is now on the receiving end. The 31-year-old, who has two major titles under his belt, might not advance past the Challengers Stage despite the tournament being held in his home country for the first time. ?

The high chants for the Brazilian franchise at the Riocentro venue soon flamed out as their Argentine counterparts repetitively shut down the local favorites. ?The Maximiliano “max” Gonzalez-led 9z started the game strong and dictated the pace of the Mirage map. Their early-on dominance was attributed to their incredible play on the CT side, where they rode on Imperial’s lapses and ended the first half of the map with a 13-2 record.?

?The second half of the map saw FalleN secure his first ever ace on the B bombsite at a Major with Dual Berettas. This got Imperial some sort of momentum as they drew some blood on 9z in multiple consecutive rounds, which also got the Brazilian fans excited as they cheered on loudly.? ?However, it was already too late as Imperial tried to make a comeback. 9z added three more wins on the map to claim victory with a 16-11 record on Mirage.

9z followed up that performance with a victory over Evil Geniuses in the third round, setting up a clash with BIG on Wednesday. Imperial, however, bowed out of the tournament with a 0-2 defeat to Cloud9.

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