Main qualifiers for European Minor Rio 2020 start on March 7. 16 teams including such big names as Fnatic, Ninjas in Pyjamas, OG, Heroic, Dignitas and BIG fill fight for 8 places at the tournament. The matches of the first leg are played at 12 and 15 CET.
Fnatic are facing SMASH Esports featuring their ex-player Joakim «disco doplan» Gidetun. Smash are 86th in HLTV world ranking while Fnatic are hitting top 4 right now. Another highlighted team is Dignitas with its old school ex-NiP roster. Despite being only 44th in current HLTV rating Dignitas easily passed through the first open qualifiers. If Dignitas beat Spanish team Movistar Riders they face Fnatic in a match that can adorn the whole qualifiers. Another interesting upper bracket clash possible is OG versus Heroic. To face each other those teams have to beat Heretics and KOVA Esports relatively.
MAD Lions who were directly invited to the qualifiers and occupy the 11th place in HLTV rating right now have parted ways with their in-game leader Nicolai «HUNDEN» Petersen just a few days ago. Nicolai himself became a part of MAD Lions management and is working on roster finalizing. However they have not managed to complete the roster and withdrew the qualifiers. CompLexity are in as a replacement invite.
Full schedule of Europe Minor Championship – Rio 2020 Closed Qualifiers can be found here.
Europe Minor Championship – Rio 2020 kicks off on April 26 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 8 teams will fight for $50,000 prize pool, two direct invites to ESL One: Rio 2020 New Challenger Stage and an additional spot at play-in stage. The Major itself is held on May 11-24 also in Rio. The prize pool of the tournament is $1,000,000. A winner gets $500,000. The last three Majors were won by Astralis. Danish team is the only one who took the biggest CS:GO tournament so many times in a row. Astralis is also the best team in terms of all-time major wins with four victories.
