IEM Rio viewer's guide

HLTV has put together a comprehensive viewer's guide ahead of the last tier-one LAN event before the BLAST.tv Paris Major.

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Update: HLTV has learned the grand final will be a best-of-three match, not a best-of-five.

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IEM Rio gets started on Monday, April 17, and will play out over the course of a week before concluding on April 23 with a best-of-three grand final in front of the Jeunesse Arena.

The tournament will host 16 teams — six of whom currently reside in the top 10 — and begin with a double-elimination group stage, where just six playoff spots will be up for grabs. Those who top their respective groups will earn a berth straight to the semi-finals, whilst those who finish the group stage in second and third place will start the playoffs from the quarter-finals.

The knockout stage will be a single-elimination affair, with best-of-three matchups being employed until the grand final on April 23, which will be a best-of-three bout — a change from most previous ESL competitions in the past few years. The winning team will take home the $100,000 first-place cash prize as well as earn an appearance at IEM Cologne, which will run from July 25-August 6.

FaZe make the trip to Brazil as the highest-ranked team in attendance, but will be undoubtedly gunning to put on a better showing after looking far from their best at the recently-concluded BLAST.tv Paris Major Europe RMR in Copenhagen. The team around Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen let a 2-0 start to the Major qualifier slip, ultimately needing to take down Cloud9 in the last chance qualifier to clinch a place at the upcoming $1,250,000 spectacle.

Conversely, Natus Vincere have the chance to steal away the limelight. The Ukrainian-majority roster earned their own berth to CS:GO's last-ever Major with an unblemished 3-0 record in Denmark, and they will look to build on this strong performance once play gets underway in Brazil.

Read more

Virtus.pro withdraw from IEM Rio: "We are committing to enhanced training" *

IEM Rio will also have three hometown teams throwing their hats into the ring. FURIA received the 'Local Hero' invite to be in with a shot at playing in front of the home crowd, whilst MIBR successfully conquered the North American qualifier to punch their ticket to the $250,000 LAN. As for Imperial, they received the call-up to IEM Rio as a last-minute replacement for Virtus.pro, who withdrew from the competition in order to focus on "enhanced training."

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Participating teams

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Schedule

IEM Rio will play out over the span of a week, beginning with the group stage on Monday, April 17, and wrapping up with a best-of-three grand final on Sunday, April 23.

The full schedule can be found below:

Group A

Date	Matches
IEM Rio 2023
17/04/2023	Ninjas in Pyjamas 16:00 Imperial	Match
17/04/2023	The MongolZ 16:00 Natus Vincere	Match
17/04/2023	BIG 17:15 MOUZ	Match
17/04/2023	HEROIC 17:15 9INE	Match
17/04/2023	Imperial 21:00 The MongolZ	Match
17/04/2023	Ninjas in Pyjamas 21:45 Natus Vincere	Match
18/04/2023	BIG 00:30 HEROIC	Match
18/04/2023	MOUZ 00:45 9INE	Match
18/04/2023	Ninjas in Pyjamas 19:30 9INE	Match
18/04/2023	The MongolZ 23:45 HEROIC	Match
19/04/2023	Ninjas in Pyjamas 19:30 HEROIC	Match
19/04/2023	Natus Vincere 19:30 BIG	Match

Group B

Date	Matches
IEM Rio 2023
17/04/2023	Vitality 18:30 OG	Match
17/04/2023	MIBR 18:30 Cloud9	Match
17/04/2023	FaZe 19:50 9z	Match
17/04/2023	FURIA 20:10 fnatic	Match
18/04/2023	Vitality 16:00 MIBR	Match
18/04/2023	9z 16:00 fnatic	Match
18/04/2023	FaZe 19:30 FURIA	Match
18/04/2023	OG 23:00 Cloud9	Match
19/04/2023	fnatic 16:00 OG	Match
19/04/2023	Vitality 16:00 FaZe	Match
19/04/2023	FURIA 23:00 Cloud9	Match
19/04/2023	OG 23:00 Vitality	Match

Playoffs

Date	Matches
IEM Rio 2023
21/04/2023	Vitality 17:00 BIG	Match
21/04/2023	HEROIC 20:30 FURIA	Match
22/04/2023	Cloud9 17:00 Vitality	Match
22/04/2023	Natus Vincere 21:45 HEROIC	Match
23/04/2023	Vitality 19:00 HEROIC	Match

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Talent lineup

A total of 14 talent members will guide viewers through the action of the weeklong event. James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks will be leading things as the stage host, while Tres "⁠stunna⁠" Saranthus and Freya "⁠Freya⁠" Spiers will be heading up the desk.

Casting duties will fall to several household names, such as Chad "⁠SPUNJ⁠" Burchill and Alex "⁠Machine⁠" Richardson, and Harry "⁠JustHarry⁠" Russell and Hugo "⁠Hugo⁠" Byron, while Janko "⁠YNk⁠" Paunović is among one of the three analysts on hand.

The full talent lineup for IEM Rio is:

Stage host

James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks

Desk hosts

Freya "⁠Freya⁠" Spiers
Tres "⁠stunna⁠" Saranthus

Analysts

Janko "⁠YNk⁠" Paunović
Sudhen "⁠Bleh⁠" Wahengbam
Luis "⁠peacemaker⁠" Tadeu

Commentators

Chad "⁠SPUNJ⁠" Burchill
Alex "⁠Machine⁠" Richardson
Harry "⁠JustHarry⁠" Russell
Hugo "⁠Hugo⁠" Byron
James "⁠BARDOLPH⁠" Bardolph
Alex "⁠hawka⁠" Hawkins
Brandon "BDog" Rawlings
Lucy "LucyLuce" Eastwood

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Prize distribution

IEM Rio will feature a $250,000 prize pool. $100,000, alongside a ticket to IEM Cologne, will be dished out to the eventual victor, with the remainder of the cash being distributed proportionately to teams' final standings.

The full prize pool allocation is as follows:

1. $100,000 + IEM Cologne
2. $42,000
3-4. $20,000
3-4. $20,000
5-6. $10,000
5-6. $10,000
7-8. $6,000
7-8. $6,000
9-12. $5,000
9-12. $5,000
9-12. $5,000
9-12. $5,000
13-16. $4,000
13-16. $4,000
13-16. $4,000
13-16. $4,000

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On-site coverage

HLTV will be in attendance at IEM Rio, so stay tuned as we'll bring you coverage of the Brazilian competition through pictures and player interviews.