On November 9, the last matches of the Legends stage at the IEM Rio Major were completed, resulting in the final list of teams that qualified for the playoffs of the tournament. MOUZ, Natus Vincere and Spirit won the last place in the next stage.
The single-elimination playoffs will start on Thursday. It will start with a match between fnatic and Outsiders, which is scheduled for 20:00 Moscow time. Interestingly enough, these two teams have met before at Rio. At the Challengers stage, the strongest team was Outsiders, who beat the European squad with a score of 2 – 0.
Another Russian team, Cloud9, will start their way to the playoffs with a match against MOUZ, which will also take place on Thursday. Cloud9 had a few rough moments in the group stage: first they were in danger of elimination after losing two matches in a row, but then they managed to make it to the playoffs with three wins in a row.
Two more quarterfinal matches will take place on Friday. Heroic will face Spirit, while Brazilian FURIA will face Natus Vincere.
The semifinals, which will be played by the winners of these matches, will be held on Saturday, and the grand final will start on Saturday at 21:00.