With BLAST Premier Fall Final 2024 proving to be a banger and G2 crowned victorious, it's time to see whether or not they can make it two in a row at IEM Rio, or if NAVI can bounce back and win yet another event on their road to being named the best team of the year.
Now a mainstay of the CS calendar, it's the third year in a row that ESL have ran the event, the first being the IEM Rio Major back in 2022.
At the event, 16 of the best teams in the world will fight it out for a $2550,000 prize pool, with the winning team getting $100,000 of that.
IEM Rio 2024 kicks off today, October 8th 2024 at 16:00 CEST. A week long event, the final will be played on on October 13th 2024.
ESL recently announced that the final will be a BO5, coming at the end of a three-day long playoff weekend that will begin at 16:00 CEST on Friday 11th October 2024.
Before the final on Sunday, which is set to begin at 19:00 CEST, there will be a show match two hours before.
IEM Rio 2024 is a 16 team event, with eight of those teams currently sitting inside the top 10 on HLTV's world ranking. Of the other eight, the lowest ranked team is 9z, who are currently in 21st.
The big three to look out for are G2, NAVI, and Vitality. There are high hopes for G2 given their success in Copenhagen at Fall Final, while NAVI remain strong and there is renewed interest in Vitality following their win at IEM Cologne 2024.
Of the 16 teams in attendance, four of them are home to South American rosters. With just six playoff spaces available, FURIA, paiN, Imperial, and 9z will all be looking to play in front of a crowd on their home continent, while the first free will be especially keen due to it also being their home nation.
However, those free teams will have to fight especially hard if they all want to make the playoffs, they're all in a tough Group A alongside FaZe, NAVI, Liquid, and MOUZ.
There are some exciting games on day one of IEM Rio 2024, including an NA showdown between Liquid and Complexity.
FaZe vs FURIA will also be one to watch, FaZe will be determined to continue the form that made them look reinvigorated at Fall fInal.
BLAST ApS., Hauser Plads 1, 3., 1127 Copenhagen