ESL will host the first of multiple regional competitions that will act as the official qualification method to ESL’s CS:GO Major in November 2020.

The recent restructuring of the CS:GO Major calendar, coupled with Rio’s doubled prize pool of $2,000,000, made it necessary for Valve to redesign the qualification structure. As a result, all teams will have to play their way into the Major in an expanded online qualifying format.

Qualification for the Major will consist of various competitions that will grant points into Regional Major Rankings (RMR). The teams with the most points will qualify to the Major as Legends, Challengers and Contenders (formerly New Challengers) depending on their position and regional slot distribution. Visit the official CS:GO developer blog for more details on how the qualifying system will work.



The first of these tournaments will be ESL One: Road to Rio powered by Intel®, with further RMR competitions to be confirmed by Valve in the near future.

ESL One: Road to Rio Overview

The world’s best 56 teams across divisions in Europe, CIS, North America, South America, Oceania and Asia will compete online for RMR points and a $255,000 prize pool between April 22 and May 17.

All teams which had already qualified for the Rio Major and Minors will take part in the competition.

Regional Distribution



Europe

Teams: 16

Prize Pool: $105,000

CIS

Teams: 12

Prize Pool: $50,000

North America

Teams: 12

Prize Pool: $70,000

South America:

Teams: 4

Prize Pool: $10,000



Oceania:

Teams: 4

Prize Pool: $10,000

Asia:

Teams: 8 (Greater China: 2, SEA: 3, Middle East: 1)

Prize Pool: $10,000

Format and Schedule

Between April 22 and May 17, all regions will play a round robin group stage, followed by playoffs and culminating in a Grand Final; all series will be best-of-threes.



These are the starting dates for every region at ESLOne: Road to Rio:



Europe: April 22

Asia: April 22

South America: April 22

North America: April 22

Oceania: April 23

CIS: April 30



Stay up to date on all things ESL One Rio with our dedicated CS:GO accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!

