Valve Cancel ESL One Rio 2020

Both Valve and ESL have announced that ESL One: Rio 2020 was cancelled. ESL are determined to hold the event in Rio de Janeiro when it is safe, so the tickets remain valid for currently unknown new dates and can be refunded by request.

In their blog Valve explained that they will not be organizing LAN-events while “the pandemic still poses a threat to travellers”. Meanwhile, they will continue holding online Regional Major Ranking (RMR) events. They will not be planning another major at least until it is possible to hold LAN RMR tournaments around the world. This which means that 2020 is the first year since 2013 without a CS:GO major.

ESL One: Rio 2020 was initially planned to be held in May, and was postponed to November due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the event was supposed to be the only major of the year, its prize pool was doubled to $2,000,000. In March Valve also introduced Regional Major Ranking events – a series of local tournaments which award qualification points to majors.