ESL announce the return of IEM Rio for 2026

ESL announced the return of Intel Extreme Masters Rio for the 2026 Counter-Strike 2 season, following the Brazilian city’s last event in 2024.

Confirmed on Friday, December 12, IEM Rio 2026 will be a part of the ESL Pro Tour circuit and will be held in partnership with Rio de Janeiro Esports Federation (FERJE), EFG, and the State of Rio de Janeiro.

Rio de Janeiro has previously hosted significant CS2 events, including the 2022 Rio Major. Since then, the Brazilian city has held two iterations of IEM Rio in 2023 and 2024; however, it was not included on the competitive schedule in 2025.

IEM Rio 2026 is scheduled to take place on April 13-19 as the seventh S-Tier event of the year.

It will succeed PGL Bucharest and conclude just one day before the FISSURE Playground #3 kickoff.

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The tournament will welcome 16 teams, vying for the lion’s share of the US$300,000 prize pool. The list includes 13 invited squads through the Valve Regional Standings (VRS) and three teams who will battle through qualifiers.

It kicks off with two double-elimination (GSL) groups of eight, with all matches played as best-of-three.

The top three teams in each group will advance to Farmasi Arena for the playoffs, with the winners earning a bye to the semifinals. The second and third-place teams will advance to the quarterfinals as high and low seeds, respectively.

Playoffs will be single-elimination, with all matches played as best-of-three, except for the grand finals, which are best-of-five.

Global and Americas qualifying events will begin on January 16 with the open stage and culminate on January 23 with the closed qualifiers.

The top three teams (two from Global and one from Americas qualifiers) will join the directly invited teams, who will be revealed with the January 5 VRS update.

IEM Rio 2026 is the sixth confirmed IEM event of 2026, alongside the season-opening IEM Krakow and the IEM Cologne Major, scheduled for June 2-21.

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