Rio is the biggest destination in the CSGO world these days. Many teams have tried, only a few have managed to climb their way and earn a spot in the tournament.
Down below are some of the latest squads qualified, and the roads they had to travel.
Team Heroic
In a two-map match, Heroic overcame BIG by winning Inferno (16-11) and Mirage (16-11). (16-12). The victory secures the Danes' place in the Major as the third team from Group B.
Prior to securing their place against the Germans, they had victories over SAW and Sangal along with a loss to Outsiders during their Swiss System run. The Danes will now compete on Sunday in the third-place final, where one of the 3-1 teams will advance to the Legends Stage, for a seat on the stage.
The top player in the series was Martin “stavn” Lund, a 20-year-old rifler who recorded 51 kills while posting a 1.35 rating and 95.4 ADR.
Bad News Eagles
Bad news Eagles completed the Swiss System with a 3-2 record, defeating ForZe in the decisive series with a 2-1 score, securing them a place in the Challenger Stage of the Rio Olympics. They also defeated Eternal Fire and Astralis. They will now attempt to replicate their miraculous run from the PGL Major Antwerp, where the squad advanced all the way from open qualifiers to the Legends stage.
To be honest, Flatron said that what got them here was their sense of teamwork. Halimi referred to “juanflatroo” in the post-game interview. “We are renowned as a comeback team and have performed several comebacks. We simply know we're going to fucking come back when we get into that game like feeling.”
Team Fnatic
In a two-map series, fnatic easily defeated 1WIN, winning Overpass (16-5) and Ancient (16-9) to finish 3-2 in the Europe RMR A competition and secure a seat in the IEM Rio Major Challengers Stage.
With losses to Cloud9 and the European mix including William “mezii” Merriman, Egor “flamie” Vasilyev & co. were eliminated from the competition with a 2-3 record after failing to capitalize on either of their two opportunities to qualify for the Major.
Vitality
The most recent team from the European Regional Major Ranking competitions to qualify for the IEM Rio Major was Vitality. The Dan “apEX” Madesclaire-led team won against MOUZ to finish 3-1 in the B group of the European RMRs after defeating BIG, FANTASY, and Monte.
Even though Vitality's run through the Swiss stage is finished, they will compete on Sunday for a direct pass to the Legends Stage in a bracket with Heroic and the victor of OG vs. Outsiders for third place.
Team OG
Following their 2-1 victory over Outsiders at the Europe Regional Major Ranking competition, OG is the newest team to earn a spot at the IEM Rio Major. The group will attend their first-ever Major since its entrance into CS:GO in late 2019 after narrowly losing out on spots at PGL Major Stockholm and PGL Major Antwerp.
The European mix won on Dust2 16-5, completed the series on Inferno 16-13, then failed in their comeback attempt on Ancient 13-16 in the spot-deciding match. Shahar “flameZ” Shushan ended the game with 62 kills and a 1.33 rating. He was consistently his team's best fragger.
