Time for IEM Rio 2024!

8 October 2024

The longest running global pro gaming tour in the world. That’s how organizer ESL calls the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM), one of their most famous and successful events, and not even two months after the last edition in Cologne (Germany), it’s time for Counter-Strike fans from around the world to shift to focus to Rio de Janeiro. From October 11th to October 13th, 2024, the IEM Rio 2024 will be taking place at the Farmasi Arena, in the world-famous Brazilian city of carnival.

Major moment for Brazilian Counter-Strike fans

The Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2024 is returning about half a year and a half after IEM Rio 2023, which was hosted back in April of last year. This makes it the second time in less than two years that ESL organizes Brazil’s premier Counter-Strike event in the city of the Copacabana. As usual, it brings together the sixteen best Counter-Strike 2 teams in the world to compete for the title and, of course, a share of the $ 250.000 prize pool.
The participating teams have qualified for the event in Brazil in different ways:

Russian esports organization Team Spirit is the biggest absentee on the list, though the reason for their absence is not entirely clear. The Belgrade-based organization was amongst the twelve special invites for IEM Rio 2024, but decided to decline the invitation for unspecified reasons. The organization recently also missed the ESL Pro League S19, due to visa problems that prohibited the players from attending the event on Malta, according to Team Spirit themselves.

Usual ESL Grand Slam format

IEM Rio 2024 starts with two groups of eight teams, with opening matches played in a Best-of-1 format. All matches after that are played in Best-of-3 format, apart from the Grand Final. The final clash of the Masters in Rio de Janeiro will consist of a maximum of five matches as it will implement a Best-of-5 format.

Eventually, the best three teams of each group progress to the Playoff Stage. Group B’s number 2 team will play Group A’s number 3 in the first Quarterfinal and Group B’s number 3 will face Group A’s number 2. The winner of the first Quarterfinal will meet the winner of Group A in the first Semifinal, the winner of the second Quarterfinal will face the winners of Group B in the other Semifinal. The two best teams will then decide amongst them who will take home the $ 100.000 prize plus the automatic qualification for IEM Katowice 2025. The runner-up will take home $ 42.000 in prize money.