The South American closed qualifier takes place this weekend.

ESL has unveiled the list of invited teams for IEM Rio 2024 - the TO’s marquee event in South America. Eleven teams have received direct invites for the October tournament.

IEM Rio 2024 Direct Invites

The IEM Rio 2024 is a sixteen-team tournament featuring some of the best teams from all over the world. The tournament will see eleven direct invites as part of the competition. The remaining slots will go to teams that have to qualify for the event.

Here are the eleven teams that have received a direct invite to the event:

  • Natus Vincere
  • Vitality
  • FaZe Clan
  • Astralis
  • 9Z
  • MOUZ
  • Virtus.Pro
  • G2 esports
  • Complexity
  • The MongolZ
  • FURIA

There will be five more teams at the event who will join from the following regional qualifiers

  1. EU Qualifier
  2. EU Qualifier
  3. NA Qualifier
  4. SA Qualifier
  5. Asia Qualifier

IEM Rio 2024 takes place from October 7-13, 2024. The sixteen teams will form two groups of eight teams each. The opening matches will be best of one series while the remaining (elimination and decider matches) will all be best of three series. 

The winners of the group stage move on directly to the semifinals. The next two teams in each group will go forth to the quarterfinals, having to play an extra match to ensure they reach the semifinals. The playoffs are a single-elimination bracket and the winner takes home the lion’s share of the prize pool. 

The present list of team invites mostly includes the top teams from the ESL World Ranking. The South American closed qualifier dates have already been unveiled. The closed qualifier takes place over two days on July 28 and 29. MIBR and paiN have received invites with the remaining two teams qualifying via the open qualifiers.