Valve: The Road to the November Rio Major

CS:GO developers have published the statement clarifying the situation and announcing changes for the only Major of the year.

The Rio Major will take place in November and, as the only Major of 2020, the prize pool will be $2,000,000.

It will have been more than a year since the last Major. To ensure that the Rio Major features the top teams in the world, we will require that current Legends and Challengers demonstrate that they are still in top form. Due to the difficulty in travel for the foreseeable future, we’re going to do that regionally.

Regional Major Rankings

All teams participating in the November Rio Major will earn their invites through regional rankings, which will be updated based on their performance in upcoming Regional Major Ranking competitions.

Teams competing in an RMR series will receive Major Ranking points based on their placement. We will have more details on the point distribution once we have a final list of the Major Ranking competitions between now and the Rio Major.

The first RMR series will be in May, and we intend to have one more RMR series in the Fall. Additionally, if tournament organizers are interested in modifying their previously planned 2020 events to be RMR competitions, they should reach out to us.

For us to consider an event for Major ranking, it must invite the top RMR teams in the region and hold qualifiers for the remainder. The event can be of any format, any prize pool, any duration, and either online, LAN, or a combination of the two.

November Rio Invitations

24 teams will be invited to the November Rio Major from six different regions based on their Regional Major Ranking.

In total, there are 8 Legend, 8 Challenger, and 8 Contender invitations available.

Each region will be allocated invites to the Major based on that region’s performance in the preceding Major. Based on the results of the 2019 Berlin Major, the invitations for each region are as follows:

November Rio Invitation Distribution
EUR CIS NA SA AS OC
Legends 3 2 3*
Challengers
(formerly Returning Challengers)		 5 1 2*
Contenders
(formerly New Challengers)		 2 2 1 1 1 1
Total Invitations 10 5 6 1 1 1

*Teams currently unable to travel to their native region are invited to defend their invitations in the region where they are currently situated.

The 2020 May RMR Series

The first series of these RMR competitions will be in May and will be hosted by ESL. All teams that would have been invited to the May Rio Major or the May Rio Minors will be invited to compete for position in their region. Current Legends and Challengers will start with some Regional Major Ranking points.

FAQ

Q. How are the Regional Major Rankings calculated?

  • The Regional Major Rankings will be points-based, and the value of events closer to the Major will be greater than earlier events. However, we won’t have a detailed breakdown before we’ve finalized the RMR events for the year.

Q. Will there be Minors for the November Rio Major?

  • There will be no Minors ahead of the November Rio Major. Regional Major Rankings will be used to determine all 24 teams participating in the November Rio Major. There will not be a separate path for teams to qualify.

Q. What happens to teams who were invited to the May Minors?

  • For the first Regional Major Ranking series in May, teams qualified for the May Minors (and/or qualifiers for those Minors) will be invited to participate in their respective region’s competition. For later RMR competitions, participants will be invited based on their regional ranking, with additional slots available to teams determined by qualifiers.

Q. What happens to the Minor prize pool?

  • Valve will sponsor the May and Fall Regional Major Ranking series. Each of those events will feature a prize pool of $255,000, divided across each region based on the number of Legends and Challengers invitations available for that region. The minimum prize pool in a region will be $10,000.

Q. What determines what region a team competes in?

  • Given the circumstances, teams’ regions are determined by their current location.

Q. What happens if a team changes region?

  • Regional Major Rankings only represents a team’s performance relative to other teams in the region. Therefore, any region change by a team will result in a reset of the team’s Major Ranking points.

Q. Can a team change their roster?

  • Teams can change up to two members of their roster in the lead up to an event at a cost of 20% of the team’s points, per player. They can adjust their roster prior to the roster lock for each Regional Major Ranking competition.