IEM Road to Rio Substitute list revealed – G2 Lekr0, Vitality Snax

2 weeks after the official roster lock, ESL has revealed the rosters for the IEM Road to Rio RMR. The list gives us insight into some of the interesting substitutes registered for the event. It includes Academy players, benched members, and veterans alike.

Astralis already know far too well that a good substitute is important for IEM Road to Rio. MistR from Astralis Talent will be stepping into the roster as k0nfig suffers from an ankle injury. Much like Astralis, many teams have included academy players as their substitutes. C9, BIG, NaVi, NiP and OG have all listed the obvious names from their academy rosters.

Interestingly, BIG and NiP have listed their academy players Elias "⁠s1n⁠" Stein and Max "⁠maxster⁠" Jansson instead of main team benched members Nils "k1to" Gruhne and Nicolas "Plopski" Gonzalez Zamora. Cloud9's substitute, Daniil "⁠alpha⁠" Demin, comes from their largely unknown academy team.

On the completely opposite side of the age spectrum are the numerous veterans listed as the substitute at IEM Road to Rio. Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer Gustafsson for FaZe is the obvious move, but his fellow Swede Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson being listed for G2 will raise a few eyebrows.

Vitality, had used Bubzkji as a substitute at PGL Antwerp, but have listed Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski as their substitute. The Polish legend last stood in for Lotan "Spinx" Giladi on ENCE, and has moved to Vitality just like Spinx. Finally we have 00nation listing 35-year-old Ricardo "fox" Pacheco as their substitute who previously played with Epitácio "TACO" de Melo in the SK Gaming days.

A number of teams have chosen not to list a substitute. The most prominent name to skip out on a substitute is Liquid who'd need coach Damian "daps" Steele to step in, in case of emergency.

Will we see any more substitutes forced to step in? Will Astralis be able to perform with MistR? Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest CS: GO news and updates.