IEM Rio 2024 Teams Announced

IEM Rio 2024 is a $250.000 CS2 event scheduled to take place in Rio de Janeiro between October 7 – 13. The tournament features 16 teams and 11 of them have received direct invitations. The other five will need to qualify.

The invitations were given based on the ESL World Ranking system and also based on ESL preferences. FURIA Esports is the strongest local representative, so we knew from the start that they would receive an invitation.

Some of the teams, such as Natus Vincere, Astralis, MOUZ, G2 Esports, Team Vitality, and FaZe Clan were asked to participate simply because there’s hardly anyone better.

The Full List Of Directly Invited Teams

Here’s who will play for sure in IEM Rio 2024 later this year:

• Astralis
• FaZe Clan
• G2 Esports
• MOUZ
• Natus Vincere
• Team Vitality
• FURIA Esports
• Virtus.pro
• Complexity Gaming
• The MongolZ
• 9z Team

A quick analysis of their performance in 2024 reveals that all of them deserved to be invited to IEM Rio.

THE #IEM RIO 2024 INVITED TEAMS 🇧🇷@mousesports @TeamVitality @FaZeClan @natusvincere @G2CSGO @FURIA @virtuspro @ComplexityCS @1mongolz @9zTeam

The remaining 5 slots will be filled by the winners of our regional qualifiers! 🌍 pic.twitter.com/pTSKcMr7PT

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) July 23, 2024

Astralis (ranked 8^th globally)

Astralis finished 3^rd – 4^th at four consecutive S-tier events and 5^th – 6^th at BLAST Premier Spring Final. This happened from April until mid-June. This is a team that has the potential to win trophies with small improvements.

FaZe Clan (ranked 6^th globally)

FaZe finished 2^nd at IEM Katowice and PGL Major Copenhagen. They also won IEM Chengdu and then finished 5^th – 8^th at four S-tier events, including ESL Pro League S19 and the Esports World Cup.

G2 Esports (ranked 5^th globally)

G2 made two important changes to their roster and then immediately after, they managed to finish 2^nd at the Esports World Cup. This team also won IEM Dallas and finished in the top six at IEM Katowice, the Copenhagen Major, and IEM Chengdu.

MOUZ (ranked 2^nd globally)

MOUZ won ESL Pro League S19 and BetBoom Dacha Belgrade after finishing 5^th – 8^th at the Copenhagen Major and 2^nd at IEM Chengdu. More recently, they finished 3^rd – 4^th at the Esports World Cup. This is a team that has the potential to win any tournament, against any opponent.

Natus Vincere (ranked 1^st globally)

Na’Vi won the Copenhagen Major and the Esports World Cup, arguably the two most important tournaments of 2024 so far. Their roster has remained unchanged for nine months, which gives them great synergy.

Nvm, just another fluke#EsportsWorldCup #navination pic.twitter.com/cdsJLZwmDh

— NAVI (@natusvincere) July 21, 2024

Team Vitality (ranked 4^th globally)

Vitality have two of the best five CS2 players in the world: ZywOo and Spinx. When both of them are in good shape, this team is very hard to stop.

FURIA Esports (ranked 15^th globally)

With FalleN in the IGL role and players like KSCERATO landing headshot after headshot, FURIA Esports are one of the strongest teams in South America and probably the strongest team in Brazil.

In recent months, they finished 2^nd at CCT Season 2 European Series #4, 3^rd – 4^th at YaLLa Compass, and 5^th – 8^th at the Esports World Cup.

Virtus.pro (ranked 7^th globally)

VP aren’t very good at winning trophies but they are certainly good at getting good results. This year, they finished 9^th – 11^th at the Copenhagen Major, 5^th – 8^th at three other S-tier events and 3^rd – 4^th at the Esports World Cup. This performance easily makes them one of the best teams in CS2 right now.

Complexity (ranked 9^th globally)

Complexity have had EliGE on their roster for more than a year. In 2024, this team has shown that the potential for great results is there. They finished 9^th – 11^th at the Major, 3^rd – 4^th at EPL S19, and 1^st at DreamHack Summer.

The MongolZ (ranked 12^th globally)

The MongolZ won plenty of smaller tournaments this year, as well as an S-tier one: YaLLa Compass. At the Esports World Cup, they finished 9^th. This is by far the strongest Asian team at the moment.

9z Team (ranked 11^th globally)

For many of the world’s best CS2 teams, this is one of the least favorite opponents. 9z Team have an incredible capacity to perform well against everyone and they pose serious challenges to every opponent they face. At IEM Dallas they finished 3^rd – 4^th. At FiReLEAGUE Global Final they won.

Header: ESL