In CS:GO, due to the pandemic, the regional tournaments system has been used since Rio 2020. In other words, instead of a joint participation tournament, 6 different regions are competing within themselves. Then a specified number of participants advance to the next round. These regions make up each part of the Regional Major Ranking (RMR) system. According to the latest announcement, IEM Fall will host this last RMR event of the year.
The RMR organization consists of the regions of Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Oceania. We also know that unlike the other five regions, the European event will be held via a LAN event. Here, ESL will organize the final Regional Major Ranking (RMR) tournaments in all six regions with IEM Fall.
ESL tweeted about this situation. They have thus announced that they will host the final round of the RMR tournaments, which will serve as the last chance for teams to score points in the standings that will determine the PGL Major Stockholm participants.
As we mentioned, these 6 regional tournaments will unite around the name IEM Fall. The number of participants and the rights of these regional tournaments will of course also be different: North America (12 teams), South America (4 teams), CIS (12 teams), Asia (4 teams) and Oceania (4 teams). The European tournament, on the other hand, will take place over LAN in an undisclosed location with 24 teams.
The qualifying process for IEM Fall will begin at the end of August (August 28). This will continue until September 12. Then, the closed qualifiers will begin on September 12-16. The main event, held between September 29-October 10, will have a prize pool of $255,000 in each region and 2,500 points in the Regional Grand Ranking.
So this means that most regions, except the CIS and South America, will only have two RMR events to score in 2021. This puts pressure on some teams that have been unsuccessful in their first tournament.
In Europe, OG, fnatic and FaZe are among the most notable teams to find themselves outside of the 11 qualifying spots for the Major currently allocated to the region. Teams like Virtus.pro and Extra Salt in other regions will also need a good result in the final RMR to attend the Stockholm event, which will take place from 23 October to 7 November.
Also, these are not the only negative consequences of changing IEM Fall status to RMR tournament. Renewal will also no longer be able to take advantage of their win at the DreamHack Open June Asia. Instead, teams will follow the qualifying guidelines set by Valve. Thus, Valve will look at the current RMR rankings of half of the teams participating in the tournament. Also, the rest will come from the qualifiers.
The calendar for each region is as follows:
Europe
- 28-29 August – Open qualifier #1
- 2-3 September – Open qualifier #2
- 4-5 September – Open qualifier #3
- 9-10 September– Open qualifier #4
- 14-16 September – Closed qualifiers
- 29 September – 10 October – Main event (LAN)
North America
- 9-10 September – Open qualifier #1
- 11-12 September – Open qualifier #2
- 18-19 September – Closed qualifiers
- 5-10 October – Main event
CIS
- 9-10 September – Open qualifier #1
- 11-12 September – Open qualifier #2
- 18-19 September – Closed qualifiers
- 29 September – 3 October – Main event
Asia
- 9-10 September– Open qualifier #1
- 11-12 September – Open qualifier #2
- 17-19 September – Closed qualifiers
- 5-10 October – Main event
South America
- 9-10 September – Open qualifier #1
- 11-12 September – Open qualifier #2
- 17-19 September – Closed qualifiers
- 29 September – 3 October – Main event
Oceania
- 9-10 September – Open qualifier #1
- 11-12 September – Open qualifier #2
- 17-19 September – Closed qualifiers
- 29 September – 3 October – Main event
