ESL One Rio Major 2020

The ESL One Rio Major 2020, also known as ESL One Rio 2020 or Rio 2020, was scheduled to be the sixteenth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship. It was to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.[1] It was announced with a US$1,000,000 prize pool and twenty-four professional teams from around the world, as with previous Majors.[2] It would have been the seventh time ESL had hosted a Major.[3]

ESL One Rio 2020
2020
The ESL One logo
Tournament information
GameCounter-Strike: Global Offensive
LocationRio de Janeiro, Brazil
Date11—24 May 2020 (originally)
9—22 November 2020 (cancelled)
Administrator(s)Valve
ESL
Tournament
format(s)
Two 16 team swiss-system group stages
8 team single-elimination playoff
VenueJeunesse Arena
Teams24
PurseUS$2,000,000

The Major was originally scheduled to take place from May 11 to May 24, 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Valve and ESL postponed the Major to November.[4] Because Valve generally sponsors two Majors per year, the delayed Major was to have a US$2,000,000 prize pool, making it the largest prize pool in CS:GO Major history. In September 2020, Valve and ESL announced that the Major was canceled because of continued complications from the COVID-19 outbreak in Brazil.[5] In January 2021, Valve announced that PGL Major Stockholm 2021 would be the next Major instead.[6]

Qualification

While Rio 2020 was initially announced with the same Legends and Challengers format as previous Majors, the 14-month gap between Berlin 2019 and the postponed Rio 2020 date led Valve to announce a new qualification system.[7] No team would be given an automatic invitation based on results at the previous Major; instead, all 24 teams would have to earn their invitation through regional qualifiers known as the Road to Rio.[8][9]

There would be six regional qualifiers – North America, South America, Europe, CIS, Asia, and Oceania. Each regional qualifier received a set number of spots in the Rio Major. The number of spots corresponds with the number of teams from that region at the previous major, the Berlin Major.[7] Valve announced that these events would continue until a new date for the Major was determined.[10]

References
  1. "ESL One Rio Overview". HLTV.org. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
  2. "ESL One Rio 2020 - ESL Pro Tour Masters Championship". ESL One Rio. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
  3. "ESL One Rio announced, first CS:GO major in Brazil". ESPN.com. December 11, 2019. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  4. "ESL One Rio Major Moved to November". The Esports Observer. March 23, 2020. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
  5. Wolf, Jacob (September 10, 2020). "ESL One: Rio Major canceled due to coronavirus concerns". ESPN. Retrieved September 13, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. Švejda, Milan. "PGL to host next Major in Stockholm*". HLTV.org. Retrieved February 17, 2021.
  7. "The Road to the November Rio Major". Counter-Strike: Global Offensive blog. April 2, 2020. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  8. "ESL One: Road to Rio to fill May CS:GO Major void". ESL One Rio. April 2, 2020. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
  9. Mira, Luís. "ESL One Road to Rio: All you need to know". HLTV.org. Retrieved February 17, 2021.
  10. Mira, Luis. "ESL One: Rio 2020 Major cancelled due to coronavirus pandemic". HLTV. Retrieved November 29, 2020.
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