The qualified teams for the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Rio Major have finally been decided.
The Rio Major will break new ground for CSGO esports with the first major hosted in South America. The preceding Regional Major Rankings event was fierce with only 24 teams earning a trip to the $1,250,000 event. With the Americas division wrapping up on October 9, CSGO fans can finally know exactly which teams will compete for CSGO’s most prestigious prize.
All of the following CSGO teams have qualified for the major through the Regional Major Rankings event which ended on October 9, 2022.
Similar to previous CSGO majors, teams will enter the event at different stages depending on whether they have Legend, Challenger, or Contender status. The Legends will automatically advance to the main event group stage. The Contenders and Challengers will compete at a preliminary with the best teams advancing to the main event.
While many teams could potentially earn a surprise championship at the Rio Major, most fans would peg FaZe Clan or Natus Vincere as their favorite.
Reigning major champion FaZe Clan will enter the event as the top-ranked team on HLTV. It won the Antwerp Major in stunning fashion with just one map loss in its upper bracket run, and also lifted the IEM Cologne 2022 trophy. Faze placed a close second at ESL Pro League Season 16, and earned a seat in Rio de Janeiro with a 3-0 RMR stomp.
Contrarians would instead point to Natus Vincere, which is the second-most recent major winner behind FaZe. Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev has retained his reputation as the world’s greatest CSGO player who even cyberattacks can’t stop. NAVI enters with slightly less momentum after a rough finish at Pro League, but the rest of its year is filled with podium finishes.
While those two teams are popular picks for the event, many CSGO casters and analysts see this as a very open major where a wide pool of teams could potentially win. Cloud9, Team Vitality, Team Liquid, and FURIA could all make podium runs possibly ending with a championship. The only way to know for sure is to tune in to the Rio Major when it starts on October 31, 2022.
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