ESL make significant changes to IEM Rio

ESL has just made significant announcements regarding their upcoming Major, IEM Rio 2022.

With tickets to the IEM Rio CS:GO Major Championship selling out in minutes, we saw that tens of thousands of you are still wanting to attend the Major. In response to this insane demand we have decided to unleash the full Major Madness and give you more days, more CS:GO, and more fans

ESL

In what is actually an incredibly cool move by the company, they’ve extended the live experience for fans attending IEM Rio massively. This is mostly due to the fact that tickets for the event sold out in minutes, which is unprecedented for a CSGO event.

It also feels like justice for the Brazilian fans considering the event should have been held in 2020 but was curtailed by COVID-19. With such a rich history in the game, they deserve to be rewarded.

The big changes

As a result of the announcement, the Challengers (Oct 31st-Nov 3rd) and Legends (Nov 5th-8th) stages will now both take place in Hall 6 at Riocentro. This will be the first time that the earlier stages of the Major have been on display to the public in such a way.

The Champions Stage will then take place in Jeunesse Arena from November 10th through to the 13th.

This is a huge change, and it will be interesting to see how it shakes up the event. LAN is already a different game. LAN with a roaring crowd is a different monster. We might see teams struggle under the pressure.

It might also give a huge buff to the South American teams attending. Perhaps Imperial will make Legends this time, instead of falling at the final hurdle as they did at PGL Antwerp.

ESL has also announced that the stage for the Champions Stage will be moved to the center of the arena, which has allowed them to bring double the amount of fans in. This is a first for ESL in CSGO, but not Majors itself. A similar stage setup was utilized at PGL Krakow 2017 and at ELEAGUE Boston 2018.

The final announcement was that Gaules would be partnering with ESL to host a Fan Fest outside of the Arena. The matches during the Champions Stage will therefore be shown on a big screen outside of the arena. There will also be chances to win prizes at partner booths, as well as the chance to meet players at team activation areas.

All in all, this is an incredibly exciting announcement that should lead to one of the best CSGO Majors of all time.