Viewer Guide for ESL One: Road to Rio – CIS
Viewer Guide for ESL One: Road to Rio – CIS
In few days begins the CIS division of ESL One: Road to Rio, which will feature twelve teams battling it out for a $50,000 prize pool and qualification points towards ESL One: Rio 2020.
The tournament’s group stage is scheduled for April 30th – May 10th. The teams have been split into two groups with round-robin format and best-of-three series. The groups will look as follows:
| Group A | Group B |
| forZe | ESPADA |
| Gambit Youngsters | Hard Legion Esports |
| Nemiga Gaming | Natus Vincere |
| Team Spirit | pro100 |
| Team Unique | Syman Gaming |
| Winstrike Team | Virtus.pro |
The teams placed 1st in their groups will advance directly to the semifinals, while the teams placed 2nd and 3rd will compete in the quarterfinals. The single-elimination playoffs stage will feature best-of-three series only. The event will conclude on May 17th, with its winner acquiring $15,000 and 1600 qualification points.
The clear favourites of the event are Natus Vincere – one of the leading teams in the world and by far the strongest squad in their region. This year they managed to significantly improve their results after replacing experienced Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács with a young but talented Ilya "Perfecto" Zalutskiy in January. The updated roster managed to place 1st-3rd at BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 Regular Season and 1st at Intel Extreme Masters XIV – World Championship. These events were, however, held offline. Meanwhile, when it came to an online event – ESL Pro League Season 11: Europe – Na`Vi looked a bit out of shape, losing 0:2 to both North and BIG in the first group stage, and being outplayed by mousesports (0-2) and Fnatic (0-2) in the second group stage.
Another team worth watching is Virtus.pro (ex-AVANGAR). The runner-ups of StarLadder Berlin Major 2019 joined Virtus.pro last December with hopes of being able to improve results with the help of experienced management of the biggest esports club in the region. However, current results of the team are rather disappointing – this year they placed last at IEM XIV – World Championship and next-to-last at ESL Pro League Season 11: Europe. Rumour holds that ESL One: Road to Rio might be the last trial for the team – if they will fail to show good results, the roster might undergo changes.
The official English steam of the event will be available on Twitch, while the detailed schedule is available on the tournament’s page.
Earlier ESL One: Road to Rio concluded in South America, where BOOM Esports placed first after defeating Isurus with the 2-0 score. The event is currently also ongoing in Europe and North America, and next week will begin for Oceania and Asia.