IEM Rio to feature BO5 grand final

6-10-2024 23:00

All EPT Masters tournaments will use this format as the TO wants to ensure fans get a "suitable amount of guaranteed content."

IEM Rio will kick off on Monday

The grand final of IEM Rio 2024 will feature a best-of-five format, ESL has confirmed to HLTV. This adds to the growing number of tier-one LAN tournaments that have moved away from a best-of-three final format since Counter-Strike 2 was released.

Michael Parsons, Sr. Product Manager, Game Ecosystems Counter-Strike at the ESL FACEIT Group, told HLTV that this final format will be used in all ESL Pro Tour Masters tournaments moving forward.

"We’ve found with the change over to MR12 and generally quicker matches, we have decided to opt for a Best-of-5 Grand Finals," Parsons said.

"With fans traveling to our events from far and wide, we want to ensure that we deliver a suitable amount of guaranteed content to those who have purchased tickers."

IEM Rio 2024 talent announced

At the start of 2023, ESL decided to bring back a best-of-three final format for the smaller IEM events. This continued to be the norm even after the transition to CS2, which shortened the match length with the change to MR12. By contrast, ESL's flagship events (IEM Cologne, IEM Katowice and ESL Pro League) continued to feature best-of-five title deciders.

IEM Rio 2024 will kick off Monday and run until Sunday. The tournament will begin with a double-elimination group stage, followed by the single-elimination playoffs at the Farmasi Arena with the top three teams from each group.

Date	Matches
IEM Rio 2024
13/10/2024	Natus Vincere 19:00 MOUZ	Match

The grand final is scheduled to start at 19:00 . Two hours earlier, there will be a showmatch, called All-Star Hour.

BO5 hype.

2024-10-06 23:00

118

6 replies

"wants to ensure fans get a suitable amount of guaranteed content. first round still bo1 lol

2024-10-06 23:43

5 replies

Because it's the only feasible way to feature the BO1 format without completely removing it. Teams still need to be able to win BO1's and it can sometimes make for some gripping games.

2024-10-06 23:41

2 replies

but like why even keeping the bo1’s when bo3 is just simply better?

2024-10-07 07:54

1 reply

It's not a case of keeping them, it's just that there is also need not to feature the format also.

2024-10-07 10:35

The premise was for fans that travel that see the tournament live at the venue, so they can enjoy more on the finals day without feeling like they travelled for 2 maps and a ceremony

2024-10-07 02:04

I really dont mind having BO1 sometimes, just not Cologne and such, but it does make for some hype matches and the first day is great fun cause there arent any boring matches that take 3 hours, its just constant new matchups. Not every single possible match needs to be bo1

2024-10-07 02:38

good

Now get rid of the bo1s and it's a good tourney

2024-10-07 03:29

I already knew it. But thanks i suppose.

Thank god, nicely done ESL

2024-10-06 23:07

2024-10-06 23:01

Rip navi😭😔

121

my first thought

2024-10-06 23:35

Same xD

2024-10-07 08:01

sad day for navi fans

why ? they reach grandfinal at least better than spiriti quarter eleminate XDDD

2024-10-07 05:23

these goddamn ai bots on hltv

2024-10-07 15:36

F Navi

2024-10-06 23:02

aleksibo3 in shambles, another tournament he has no chance of winning

Now watch all the favourites get upset lol

2024-10-07 02:30

worth it

Rip BO3 ESL finals 2023-2024

2024-10-06 23:03

Finally

B05 should become permanent.

2024-10-06 23:04

Fluke is over😂

2024-10-06 23:05

why

Major needs bo5 final as well, come on now

2024-10-06 23:06

Any major without a bo5 final is no real major in my eyes

2024-10-07 12:18

Valve following feedbacks finally

Wdym, major is bo3

2024-10-07 00:54

Step by step

2024-10-07 01:08

BO3 is better for final, BO5 Is too long.

Flair

2024-10-06 23:10

flair hahahaha

2024-10-06 23:11

Anti na’vi strat

2024-10-06 23:09

nais

2024-10-06 23:12

navi in shambles 🗑️

2024-10-06 23:14

OOOO

2024-10-06 23:15

Donk MVP!!! Oh wait

Great

2024-10-06 23:19

why have bo1s tho

2024-10-06 23:21

No more flukers

2024-10-06 23:28

Actually residentsleeper

2024-10-06 23:30

So navi again Misses iem win G3-0 in finals

2024-10-06 23:37

W thank you esl for listening to fans. It took a year for them to do so, but better late than never.

2024-10-06 23:40

Nice

2024-10-06 23:52

Fat W but it is funny that ESL switched their grand finals from BO5 to BO3 and then straight back to BO5 again.

2024-10-06 23:56

4 replies

Cologne/Katowice have always been bo5, EPL became bo5 I don't remember when, but the other ones were always bo3

2024-10-07 00:31

3 replies

No they weren't? It was a fairly recent change I think it was about a year ago. Edit: hltv.org/news/36142/esl-to-host-fewer-be.. Okay Rio was always BO3 I'll give you that but other IEM events like Dallas were BO5 until they made that change

2024-10-07 01:13

oh okay my bad, yeah I was thinking about previous Rio's not Dallas

2024-10-07 01:46

it's not just Dallas I'm pretty sure all IEM events were BO5 finals at least for some time, the only reason Rio never was is because it's a new venue and they changed it leading up to the first IEM Rio.

2024-10-07 05:19

bo5 good, but I wonder if Brazilian fans will show up at the inevitable Vitality/G2 - Navi final with no Br players :/

2024-10-07 00:21

Brazilians from all other regions of the country would fill the Arena in this Final and it would be an incredible atmosphere... but the Brazilians from Rio won't show up, I can give you this prediction right now

2024-10-07 00:34

I hope so. I don't blame them for not showing up at the VP Heroic final though. That was probably one of the most boring finals of all time

2024-10-07 00:36

2024-10-07 00:30

2024-10-07 00:35

i don't care, best team wins Rio

Players should protest, 1 million long ass tournament bo5 grand final i understand 250k long ass tournament bo5 grand final, ESL that's gready as fuck Hope the players don't let them get away with this

2024-10-07 00:37

it's not long ass tbh, Cologne Kato are 2 weeks, this is only 1 week, and the first round is bo1 But yeah that prize pool is tiny, ESL needs to step up if they wanna compete with PGL next year

2024-10-07 01:04

nerfing navi i see

2024-10-07 00:39

to nerf something, it has to be good in the first place. this is just an anti-fraud mesure

2024-10-07 08:39

2024-10-07 11:22

W a bo3 grand final makes no sense, unless your event is tier 3248724 and players shouldnt waste their time playing it

2024-10-07 00:41

these 'smaller' events shouldnt have bo5, only Proleague/kato/cologne

2024-10-07 00:47

all events should have a bo5 grand final, especially if we're sticking to mr12. nothing worse than a blowout 2-0 grand final under bo3.

2024-10-07 00:57

blowout 3-0 is just as bad, but rarely happens these days with the competitive scene at the moment. Only happened at Pro League 19 when Vita got shat on by Mouz for some reason

2024-10-07 01:06

Katowice 2024 ?

2024-10-07 06:33

ah yes this one too

2024-10-07 06:45

This is a massive W, especially since moving to MR12 The only people saying L to this are low quality match enjoyers

2024-10-07 01:19

only people saying L to this are navi fans

2024-10-07 08:38

What about the BO1 openers??

2024-10-07 01:20

The other TOs should do the same in 2025

2024-10-07 02:06

BLAST had made it

2024-10-07 04:11

Yeah I know referring to all the new TOs reentering/planning to enter in 2025-2026

2024-10-07 07:00

2024-10-07 02:10

Gooooood

2024-10-07 02:45

thank god bo5 grand finals always the way

2024-10-07 03:45

Mr12 BO5 is still 3+ hours aint nobody gonna sit and watch cs2 match for 3+ hours, maybe no lifers

2024-10-07 06:43

i mean it's still better than the old mr15 bo5s but yeah i guess it can be a bit much for casual fans

2024-10-07 08:20

2024-10-07 04:58

banana cup bo5 this is a joke

2024-10-07 05:04

flair

2024-10-07 08:37

No one has time to wach BO5 finals they should be BO3. Dont care if its mr12 or not BO5 are still too long.

2024-10-07 06:42

Good, NaVi needs more BO5 practice. At some point they figure how to approach 5 maps with half a day of prep and then they'll be fully unstoppable.

2024-10-07 07:57

Natus Fraudcere are never winning another trophy and i'm so happy rn

Valve switched to MR12 because they thought matches were dragging on, while organizers are pushing for Bo5 formats to stretch the games out. Honestly, I’d prefer to see competitive matches played on three maps. This would let teams concentrate their prep, which ups the skill ceiling. Instead of watching teams trade blowouts on filler maps before they finally get serious in the last ones under MR12, we end up with lower-quality content overall.

2024-10-07 09:58