As one of the best teams this season, ESL has raised the prize pool of the upcoming IEM Rio Major, the second Valve-sponsored CS: GO tournament, to $1.25 million.
The latest increment gives each of the 24 teams attending the event a chance to earn prize money.
According to information, ESL relocated the additional $250,000 from the IEM Road to Rio prize pool.
Before the latest development, the bottom-placed teams (17th to 24th) were not earning any prize money whatsoever, just sticker money.
Now that there is $10,000 for their placing, the rest of the money was allocated across the other placings aside from the champion, who will still earn $500,000.
This development is bringing several changes to the format.
The IEM Rio Major will feature a bigger prize pool than 16 Majors in the past. The first Brazilian Major is only behind the PGL Stockholm Major, which offered $2 million in prize pool because of the Major hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile: the DreamHack Winter 2013, the first CS: GO Major, offered a $250,000 prize pool.
The value was kept until MLG Columbus 2016, the first CS: GO Major to set the prize pool at $1 million.
The announcement of IEM Rio Major’s prize pool increase has been widely approved in the CS: GO community.
This is a step in the right direction fake the tournament, which will run from Oct 31 to Nov 14 in Rio de Janeiro.
Meanwhile, the teams that will qualify will be decided in early October with the Regional Major Ranking (RMR) events for Europe, the Americas, and Asia.
From the 24 slots, Europe will take 16 places in total. The American teams will fight for six slots, and two Asian teams will complete the list.
Written by Oladipupo Mojeed
