ESL has announced the group lineup and starting match schedules for the Road to Rio European and Asian tournaments. The final list of participating teams was determined after the last qualifying stages were completed in Europe and Asia.
The European teams will be divided into two groups of 16 participants each. From each group, eight teams will be able to qualify for the various stages of IEM Major Rio. For teams from Asia, there are only two spots available at the majors: two of the four ranking tournament participants for that region will qualify for the Challengers stage. The groupings for North and South America will be known at a later date, as the U.S. Open qualifiers do not conclude until September 5.
The position of the teams in the European groups was determined based on the level of their performances at the previous major, as well as in the four qualifying tournaments. In Group A were three of the top five teams in the world – FaZe, Cloud9 and Astralis. Natus Vincere top the list of Group B. Among their closest rivals are – MOUZ and Vitality (5th and 7th places in the ranking respectively). The matches between these teams will take place on the Mediterranean island of Malta between October 4 and 9.