Reports say 2020 CSGO Major will be ESL Rio, Brazil’s first

Reports indicate that ESL will host the first Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major of 2020 in Brazil.

According to both a comment from s1mple and a report from DBLTAP, ESL will host the next CSGO Major in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in May 2020. This would be the first Major to take place in the country. ESL last hosted a Major earlier this year at the IEM Katowice tournament in Poland.

The tournament organizer is one of the most accomplished in Counter-Strike and has hosted several majors since CSGO’s release. 

WIN.gg reported earlier this month on a slip up by Natus Vincere’s Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, where the player leaked information pointing to Brazil as the location of next year’s first Major tournament. The report backs up the information accidentally shared by s1mple on his livestream.

If true, a Brazillian Major is a treat for CSGO fans in a country that has provided fans with several professional teams of note. MIBR, formally Luminosity and SK Gaming, is the most accomplished team to come from Brazil.

Majors are the only CSGO tournaments Valve directs

CSGO’s tournament circuit differs from other esports. While games like League of Legends and Overwatch enjoy tournaments backed and hosted by the owners and creators, CSGO tournaments are more akin to the wild west of esports. Valve offers no guidance to tournament organizers with the exception of two events each year.

Valve is intimately tied to the planning and rules for the two CSGO Majors that occur each year, approving organizers and offering in-game drops for viewers while streaming matches through CSGO’s in-game client.

StartLadder hosted the most recent major, StarLadder Berlin. The tournament started in August 2019 and ran into September, covering three separate stages and almost an entire month’s worth of matches. In the finale, Astralis took home their third Major trophy in a row and set a record for the most consecutive CSGO Major wins for a team in the game’s history.

The report follows another breaking development in the Major scene. Earlier this month, Valve announced a rule change to curb conflicts of interest in CSGO Majors, requiring teams to report any business dealings with tournament organizers.