Americas will have one less Major spot in Paris after Rio results

The lackluster results at IEM Rio come with consequences for the region.

When Valve released a comprehensive rulebook for the Majors before PGL Antwerp, the game developer revealed that they will base the allocation of Major spots on each region's success at the previous Major. After just two teams from the Americas made it to the Legends stage of IEM Rio (FURIA and Liquid), the number of spots at the next Major for teams from the Americas RMR drops down from six to five.

At all the Majors since the pandemic aside from IEM Rio, the one actually happening in their own region, Americas had three teams in the Legends stage. That, combined with the three spots given to the region by default, amounted to six Major spots at PGL Antwerp and IEM Rio. For the BLAST.tv Paris Major, that number goes down to five for the first time. Additionally, depending on whether Liquid and FURIA can make playoffs, Americas could also have two, one, or no spots in directly in the Legends stage in France.

The Major spot previously held by the Americas will now go to the European RMR. The region continues its dominance over the world's scene with 17 spots at the Paris Major, due to 14 European teams being in the Legends Stage and the defaultly allocated three Contender spots. Asia will continue to have two spots at the Challengers Stage after IHC and Grayhound failed to make the next stage of the tournament.

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With the change in the number of participants from Europe, changes are expected in the qualifying format, too. Previously, with 16 Major spots, two 16-team Swiss groups were enough to determine all Major participants from the region. With the 17th spot for Europe, the qualifying system will have to expand, with another group expected to be added and significantly more teams set to compete at the Europe RMR. Meanwhile, the format will remain the same for Americas (one 16-team Swiss group), but only five qualifying spots up for grabs imply that teams could get eliminated after just two losses.

The Major spot allocation for the Paris Major is as follows:

Europe: 17 spots (+1)
Americas: 5 spots (-1)
Asia: 2 spots