What will the regional distribution for IEM Rio look like?

The overall regional slot distribution will remain the same as it was at PGL Major Antwerp.

- Slot distribution for IEM Rio to remain the same
- Teams who placed top 16 in Antwerp receive invites to next RMR

Following the release of Valve's standardized Major cycle system in early 2022, a method for adjusting the regional slot distribution at the Majors was added to account for the departed legacy invite system.

Much like the old system, the distribution is based on teams' performance from the previous Major, allocating Legends status spots to regions whose teams made it to the playoffs and Challengers spots to the regions who placed 9th-16th.

For the Americas region, critical performances came in the form of Liquid and Imperial. Securing key upset victories in their 2-2 matches during the Challengers stage and advancing to the next phase kept their hopes of making it farther in the Major alive and secured a better path for their region in the future.

While the distribution of Contenders slots always remains the same at three for Europe, three for the Americas, and two for Asia, the distribution for the Legends and Challengers is directly tied to the results of the previous Major. In this case, Liquid and Imperial making the top 16 stage in Antwerp secured the Americas two Challengers slots at the following Major.

Below is shown the regional distribution for the IEM Rio 2022 Major followed by the team that earned their region that spot due to their performance at PGL Antwerp:

Legends

Challengers

Contenders

Another benefit of placing in the top 16 portion of the Major is receiving an invite to the next Regional Major Ranking tournament for each team's respective region. With the open qualification process being historically so brutal, being able to start directly in the RMR event itself can be very important for a team's chances at repeat qualifying.

On another important note, as a result of the number of slots for each region being the exact same for IEM Rio, the formats of the RMR tournaments will also remain the same, pending any changes from Valve.