What is known about the event
For the first time, a mysterious announcement of the tournament took place on December 11. Yesterday, a mysterious teaser appeared on the official Intel Extreme Masters page on X. In the short video, you can see a man sitting on the seashore, above whom a plane later flies with the inscription Turn Up The Heat.
The next day, December 12, it became known that this teaser was a hidden announcement of the new Intel Extreme Masters RIO 2026 tournament. A video was published on ESL’s official social media, in which the organizers revealed details of the upcoming event.
As it became known, the tournament will take place from April 13 to 19 in Brazil, at the Farmasi Arena venue, which can accommodate up to 19,000 spectators. 16 teams will take part in IEM RIO 2026, competing for a prize pool of $1,000,000.
The event will be divided into two stages: the group stage and the playoffs. During the group stage, the 16 participants will be divided into 2 groups of 8 teams each. They will compete against each other in a Double-Elimination format, best of three. The top 3 teams from each group will advance to the next stage. In the playoffs, 6 teams will compete in a Single-Elimination format; all matches will be bo3, and the grand final will be bo5.
Out of the 16 participants, 12 will be selected through direct VRS invites, while the remaining 4 participants will be determined through open and closed qualifiers held from January 16 to 23, 2026.
