IEM Rio groups and opening matchups revealed

24-9-2024 20:50

NAVI, MOUZ, FaZe, Complexity, and Liquid will do battle for three playoff spots in Group A.

A challenging group stage awaits in Rio

ESL has announced the groups and opening matchups for IEM Rio, scheduled to run from October 7-13 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with $250,000 on offer.

In following with ESL's usual format for its "Masters"-tier events, the 16 teams have been split into two groups from which the upper bracket final winners advance directly to the playoff semi-finals, and the upper bracket final losers and lower bracket final winners advance to the quarter-finals.

Group A is headlined by newly-crowned ESL Pro League S20 champions Natus Vincere and features two of the most exciting openers: A rematch of Liquid and Complexity's playoff bout in Malta, and FaZe up against FURIA.

Pro League runners-up Eternal Fire and Astralis are set to lock horns in Group B, with G2 and HEROIC also facing in the opening round.

The schedule and and draw for all opening matchups can be found below:

Group A

Date	Matches
IEM Rio 2024
07/10/2024	FaZe 16:00 FURIA	Match
07/10/2024	MOUZ 16:00 paiN	Match
07/10/2024	Liquid 17:10 Complexity	Match
07/10/2024	Natus Vincere 17:15 Imperial	Match

Group B

Date	Matches
IEM Rio 2024
07/10/2024	Vitality 18:10 9z	Match
07/10/2024	G2 18:15 HEROIC	Match
07/10/2024	Virtus.pro 19:05 The MongolZ	Match
07/10/2024	Eternal Fire 19:30 Astralis	Match

won't be surprised if paiN will win mouz and then win against faze/furia

2024-09-24 20:51

Why is group A so stacked wtf

7 replies

Its not more stacked than B.

2024-09-24 20:58

seems fine to me Nav1 and Mouz - Vitality and G2 Faze and Liquid - EF and VP Col and Pain - Mongolz and Astralis Furia and Rare Atom - Heroic and 9z Maybe A is a bit more balanced but I would say the overall level is close.

2024-09-24 21:05

4 replies

Navi and mouz being equal to G2 and vita, sure Saying faze and liquid are equal to EF and VP is insane (VP are ass and ef seeding should have been determined before their pro league run) Col and pain are way better than mongolz + astraljs (bc of astralis mongolz are actually good) Rest idc sure

2024-09-24 21:43

3 replies

- it's literally the seed 1 and 4 on one side and 2 and 3, what else could you have asked for? - why should I care about how the ranking was before EPL if we are talking about the groups levels? EF right now is clearly ahead of both Liquid and Faze. - Pain and Mongolz are literally side by side in rankings and COL gotta be the most unstable top 15 team, that can win against Faze and Mouz and lose to M80 and Big in the same tournament.

2024-09-24 21:54

2 replies

That sure was not sarcastic, I agree with you that the 1-4 is equal, I however think EF is equal with faze/liquid and VP is mega hot steaming poop

2024-09-24 21:55

1 reply

I guess switching VP and COL would make it better overall, but still, considering that's the only change needed to make it nearly perfect (even then it would be team #9 and #11) I would say the it's a fine group draw.

2024-09-24 22:15

Group B is stacked

2024-09-25 15:27

ez for timbermen

2024-09-24 20:53

interesting group A

2024-09-24 20:54

BO1 yikes

2024-09-24 20:55

MOUZ 13 - Pain 0

2024-09-24 20:56

In what world u live lol

2024-09-24 21:18

FLAG AND FLAIR

2024-09-25 08:27

if FURIA beats FaZe and Pain beats Mouz... which is quite possible in a BO1 we would have FURIA vs Pain and a guaranteed BR team in the Arena... we can dream 🙏

2024-09-24 20:57

2024-09-24 20:59

both faze and mouz are playing bad so its possible ngl

2024-09-24 22:06

absolute stacked event... this is going to be a great tournament to watch as a cs enjoyer

Liquid vs CoL again?

why do we still have BO1s in MR12?

2024-09-24 21:02

Why in CS2 we already have BO1 matches?

2024-09-24 21:03

put NA teams in different groups so they dont kick each other out since we have no regional tournaments challenge: level impossible.

2024-09-24 21:14

Bo1??????

2024-09-24 21:28

Bo1 snoozefest

2024-09-24 22:05

Vitality easy bracket again xd

2024-09-24 22:24

why is it always liquid vs complexity :(

2024-09-24 23:51

Go Furia and paiN

2024-09-25 00:59

MongolZ vs G2 Grand final. MVP - Senzu or 910 Another trophy for MongolZ. (I need meds)

2024-09-25 03:18

FaZe Mouz Navi Liquid Vitality G2 Mongolz EF

2024-09-25 03:43

VAMOS 9Z!!!!

2024-09-25 04:48

Bring back teams flags ffs Btw, both BR teams in one group?? SO DUMB holy crap... ESL really didn't learn how to milk more views and engagement from Brazilian events.

2024-09-25 06:31