IEM Rio Major Seedings Announced By ESL

A day after the conclusion of the European Qualifiers, the Electronic Sports League (ESL) has confirmed the seeding process for the IEM Rio Major Regional Major Ranking (RMRs), specifically for the Europe and Asia regions. The seeding for the Americas will be announced once the qualifiers are complete, and ESL have promised to reveal the final details on Tuesday, September 6.

A total of sixteen teams have made it through from the four European Qualifiers, which ended on August 31. Sprout, Team Falcons, MOUZ and Aurora Gaming advanced from Qualifier 1.

Image Credits | ESL

How Will Seeding Work?

ESL stated that teams from the top 16 at the PGL Antwerp Major will be seeded 1st – 12th in the order of their final standings from that event. The teams that ranked 1st – 5th from open qualifier 1 will be seeded 13th – 18th, whereas the teams that finished 1st – 4th from open qualifier 2 will seed at the 19th – 22nd position. The slots from 23 to 27 will comprise the top five from qualifier 3, and the last slots, 28 to 32, will be filled from the teams that ranked 1st – 6th from open qualifier 4.

The seeds from 1 – 12 have been placed into Europe A and B using the alternating seeding method. Sprout, the first ranked team from open qualifier 1 can choose whether to be placed into EU 1 or 2, and they picked the first category. The remaining teams were seeded into the two groups using the alternating seeding method.

The top six teams from Europe A that had already qualified through the PGL Antwerp Majors are FaZe Clan, the winners of the Majors in May will be top seed at Europe A, followed Team Spirit, Ninjas in Pyjamas, G2 Esports, Cloud 9, and Bad News Eagles. Now they are joined by Sprout and Aurora Gaming for Qualifier 1, Fnatic and forZe from Qualifier 2, Eternal Fire, B8 and Ecstatic from Qualifier 3, and Astralis, 1Win and Team Gamer Legion from Qualifier 4.

Majors runners-up Natus Vincere, as well as ENCE, Heroic, Team Vitality, BIG, and Outsiders are the teams who qualified from the Majors to Europe B. Team Falcons, MOUZ and OG advanced from the first qualifier, K23 and Monte from the second, Sangal Esports and Fantasy from the third, and SAW, HEET and Benched Heroes from the last. These 32 teams will head to Malta for the European Regional RMRs between October 5-9, and the top 16 will book their spot IEM Majors in Brazil, beginning in November.

European RMRs

The European RMRs will be held in 16-team Swiss System Format. All elimination and advancement matches will be best-of-three, while all the others will be best-of-one. Each team will play until they reach three wins and advance to the next stage, and be eliminated after three losses.

This prevents the need for teams having to play the same number of games, and repeating matches against the same opponent. The Buchholz system will be used to seed matches from Round 3 to 5,  and a single-elimination best of three will resolve the 4th place decider. The top eight teams from each group will proceed to the IEM Rio Majors, while the bottom eight teams will be eliminated.

ESL has also released the schedule for the first round of matches in the RMRs. A total of 16 games will be played on October 4, eight matches each from both groups. FaZe Clan will take on GamerLegion in the first match of Europe A, while Europe B’s Natus Vincere will face Benched Heroes.

The Asian qualifiers have concluded as well. The first seed is IHC Esports, the team that placed top in the Rest of Asia closed qualifier. Renegades, the top seed from Oceania will seed second and TYLOO from the Central Asia Qualifiers will seed third. Encore Esports Club, formerly LookingForOrg, placed first in the Middle East closed qualifier and will seed fourth.