ESL One Rio Major moved to November due to coronavirus with increased $2 million prize pool; second Major of 2020 canceled

ESL has announced that the upcoming ESL One Rio Major has been rescheduled to November because of the coronavirus outbreak.

The event, which had been due to take place from May 11-24, will see the Champions Stage still being held at the original venue, the Jeunesse Arena, from November 19-22. It will take the slot in the calendar that had been reserved for the 2020 Fall Major, which means that, for the first time since 2013, when the first Major was held, there will be just one event of this stature in a calendar year.

The cancelation of the second Major of 2020 will represent an increase in prize money for ESL One Rio, which will have $2 million on offer - a record prize pool for Counter-Strike tournaments.

The announcement comes as little surprise as mass gathering events are being postponed or simply canceled all over the world. Earlier this month, Valve decided to cancel the EPICENTER Dota 2 Major, scheduled for May 2-10, which all but confirmed that the Counter-Strike Major in Rio would not go ahead as planned. At the time of writing, there were 1546 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in Brazil and 25 deaths, three of which in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

"Our decision is an extremely tough one, but health and safety have to take absolute priority", said Ulrich Schulze, Senior Vice President of Product at ESL. "Given the very difficult circumstances for live events, we still wanted to give the Brazilian fans the CS:GO Major they deserve.

"We ask everyone to stay safe and we are pleased to be able to continue to deliver some quality CS:GO esports content to the community during these troubling times, while we prepare the Rio Major for November".

Fans with tickets for the May Major can keep them for use on the rescheduled dates or ask for a refund through their Eventbrite account.

Best CSGO betting sites on offer can be found here.

The dates and location for the Minors and for the first two stages of the Major have not yet been revealed. In the coming weeks, ESL is expected to announce more details about the event, including the roster eligibility rules. As things stand now, teams who finished top-14 at the StarLadder Major will have to keep the majority of their rosters for 14 months in order to retain their spots at the Rio Major, while teams who qualified for the Minors will need to retain 3/5 of their lineups for eight months to compete at the regional events.

According to a Reddit post from Michal "Carmac" Blicharz, Vice-president of Progaming at ESL, the qualification and invitations for the Major will need to be "considered afresh" and require "a great deal of work and consideration".

The following teams are qualified for the ESL One Rio Major: