The Legends Return: FaZe, NAVI, NiP, and ENCE qualify for CS:GO IEM Rio Major Legends stage

With this year's second CS:GO major, IEM Rio Major starting on 31st October, the qualifying tournament for the same started on 4th October across multiple regions for getting the 24 teams playing the major.

The IEM Rio Major Format:

Unlike the last majors, where teams could directly qualify from the previous major as the legends, This time around, teams had to qualify for the major through the regional RMRs. The RMRs will be held for the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions.

Each RMR event has 16 teams, with 3-4 invited teams and the rest of the teams qualifying through the open qualifiers. The only exception is the Asia Pacific, with only four teams participating in the RMR, which qualified through regional qualifiers.

Out of these 52 teams playing the RMRs, only 24 teams will qualify for the Rio Major. Out of the 24 teams, eight, seven from Europe RMR and one from America RMR, directly qualify for the Legends stage, while the rest of the 16 teams play the Challengers stage.

Eight of the sixteen teams in the Challengers stage will advance to the Legends stage, and out of the 16 teams in the Legends stage, eight will qualify for the Champions stage and battle it out to lift the IEM Rio Major trophy.

European RMR:

The European RMR is divided into two, European RMR A and European RMR B, and each RMR has 16 teams, out of which four from European RMR A and Three from European RMR B will acquire the Legends status and will skip the challengers' stage.

The defending Champions Faze Clan, led by Karrigan, was the favourite to secure the legend's status from European RMR A. They fulfilled the fan's expectations by 3-0'ing the swiss stage defeating Gamer Legion, Fnatic and Sprout.

Ninjas in Pyjamas soon followed, 3-0'ing the swiss stage, defeating Astralis, Bad news Eagles and Cloud9 to secure the Legend Status, becoming the two teams from European RMR A to secure legends status.

Over at European RMR B, Navi displayed excellence making quick work of their peers and easily beating Illuminar Gaming, Mouz and Outsiders to qualify for the Legend stage.

Ence and BIG, both 2-0 in the Swiss Stage, battled it out for the second spot, where ENCE managed to take down BIG 2-0 becoming the second team to secure the Legend status from European RMR B.

American RMR:

Only three teams were invited for The American RMR, Furia, Imperial and Team Liquid and the rest of the 16 teams qualified through open qualifiers.

Team Liquid, arguably NA's best team, proved themselves in the RMR, winning against Team One Esports, MIBR and Complexity to go 3-0 in the RMR to secure a chance to secure the legend's status.

After their last RMR debacle, Evil Geniuses recovered and defeated Nouns Esports, Furia and 9z to secure an easy 3-0 in the American RMR Swiss stage. EG and Liquid will now face each other for the Legend status, and the loser will play in the Challengers stage. 

The IEM Rio Major will start with the Challengers stage kicking off on 31st October, with the finals concluding on 13th November. With the intense competition and the good teams, the Trophy will be for anyone to grab.