ESL vetoes emergency substitutions for RMR players

Tournament operator ESL has announced possible changes to the IEM Road to Rio 2022 roster. The organizers have said they will not allow emergency substitutions, which will result in those participants who encounter problems attending an RMR tournament being replaced by teams from the reserve list..

As a precautionary measure ahead of IEM Road to Rio 2022 for Europe, due to the ever-changing travel dynamics around the world, we will be holding matches this week to determine alternates. We would like to immediately emphasize that no team participating in IEM Road to Rio 2022 has been replaced at this time. We have two first line teams, Illuminar Gaming and Forward, so action is taken only if additional teams are required to replace.

Earlier it was reported that the Aurora, K23 and 1WIN teams are at risk of missing IEM Road to Rio 2022 for Europe due to visa difficulties. In addition, it is known that the BenchedHeroes team is at risk of missing the RMR tournament - the fate of the roster will be decided in the near future.

ESL will contact all teams that may be on the reserve list shortly to determine their order if more than two replacements are required among the IEM Road to Rio 2022 participants.

The day before, tournament operator ESL announced an increase in the prize pool of IEM Rio Major 2022 to $1,250,000.

List of IEM Road to Rio 2022 participants

Participants of IEM Road to Rio 2022 for America:

• FURIA Esports, Imperial Esports, Team Liquid, paiN Gaming, MIBR, 00NATION, Complexity Gaming, ex-Gaimin Gladiators, O PLANO, 9z, Arctic eSports, Isurus, Evil Geniuses, ATK, Infinity and Team oNe eSports

The composition of the participants of the first IEM Road to Rio 2022 for Europe:

• FaZe Clan, Team Spirit, Ninjas in Pajamas, G2 Esports, Cloud9, Bad News Eagles, Sprout, Aurora Gaming, fnatic, forZe, B8, Eternal Fire, ECSTATIC, Astralis, 1WIN and GamerLegion

The composition of the participants of the second IEM Road to Rio 2022 for Europe:

• Natus Vincere, ENCE, Heroic, BIG, Outsiders, Vitality, OG, MOUZ, Team Falcons, K23, Monte, Sangal Esports, FANTASY, SAW, HEET and BenchedHeroes

Participants of IEM Road to Rio 2022 for Asia:

• IHC Esports, Grayhound Gaming, Rare Atom and JiJieHao International

The European RMR tournament will be played in Malta, while the IEM Road to Rio 2022 for the Americas and Asia will take place in Sweden and Australia respectively. All four events (two for Europe) will take place simultaneously from 4 to 9 October.