Rio Major: Qualified for the champions stage

Heroic's Counter-Strike team has qualified for the Champions Stage at the Intel Extreme Masters Major in Rio, Brazil.

More than 2 300 teams entered the open qualifiers and now only eight teams are left to fight for the championship title. This is the third consecutive time Heroic qualifies for final stage of the Major, the most prestigious tournament in Counter-Strike. Heroic is now the sole Nordic representative left in the tournament.

In the quarterfinal Heroic will face-off against the winner of Team Liquid (world rank #3) vs Team Spirit (#12). After Faze Clan (the reigning champions) and Vitality (world rank #1) got knocked out, the race for the title is wide open.

Besides Heroic, the other teams qualified for the quarterfinals are:

• NAVI (#4)

• Cloud9 (#5)

• Outsiders (#6)

• Mouz (#7)

• Furia (#8)

• Fnatic (#16)

So far, the Brazilian fans have made the Rio Major the most memorable one in terms of crowd engagement. And heading into the playoff stage, it is expected to get even wilder, with matches being played at the Jeunesse Arena, hosting up to 18 000 people.

The winner of the Rio Major takes home USD 500 000 in prize money. By qualifying for the quarterfinal, Heroic is already guaranteed USD 45 000 in prize money.

In addition to prize money, participating teams receive a share of the revenues from the sales of in-game items throughout the tournament, making the Rio Major a substantial revenue source for Heroic.

We wish our team the best of luck in the upcoming quarterfinal!