Ready, Aim, Fire! Yet more epic esports action is on the agenda!

Calling all you CS:GO fans out there! Get ready to rumble over the next couple of weeks as we’re treated to yet another healthy dose of epic CS:GO action as IEM Rio 2023 gets underway. With a $250,000 total prize pool, which includes a $100,000 grand prize, as well as a qualification spot for IEM Cologne 2023 up for grabs, you can be certain that the big guns will be going all out in their quest to bring home the bacon.

Heading into this tournament, FaZe Clan look like the favorites to fight off the competition for silverware. FaZe appear to have shaken off the blip in form which blighted them towards the back end of last year and appear to have rediscovered that rich vein of form which saw them set the world of CS:GO alight in the first half of 2022. 

After overcoming the likes of FURIA and NAVI on route to the final, FaZe steamrolled their way to victory at ESL Pro League Season 17 with a comfortable 3-1 win over Cloud9 in the final to land themselves a $200,000 grand prize, as well as tickets to both IEM Cologne 2023 and Blast World Final 2023. 

As if that’s not enough, victory at ESL Pro League Season 17 also meant FaZe bagged an Intel Grand Slam after this triumph meant they’d brought home the bacon in 4 of the last 10 ESL Majors and landed them a cool $1,000,000 prize.

That being said, while FaZe will head into this tournament with their heads held high, they are far from unbeatable as their disappointing showing at the last iteration of this tournament shows. Despite being touted as firm favourites in the run-up to IEM Rio 2022, on account of their fearsome form at the time, they actually finished dead last with 3 defeats and 0 victories. 

What’s more, they also recently came off second best in a Blast Paris Major qualifying match against NAVI and have also been drawn in quite a tough group in which they could face one of either Vitality or Cloud9 in the Upper-Bracket Final. Incidentally, Vitality were the only team to beat FaZe at ESL Pro League and will no doubt fancy their chances of picking up yet another win against the rivals, should they face off once again, as they seek to show the world of CS:GO what they are made of.

Likewise, Cloud9 would also love nothing more than to get one over on their opponents. C9 have been something of the bridesmaids to FaZe’s success as of late, after losing to them in the ESL Pro League final and coming second in the race for the Intel Grand Slam crown, and will no doubt go all out to win should they face off at some stage in this tournament.

Meanwhile in Group A, Natus Vincere and Heroic are looking like the favorites to reach the play-off stages. Although NAVI have being in something of a transitionary period over the 12 months, they’ve been putting in some solid performances of late, beating FaZe Clan 2-0 in the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR A at the back end of last week and reaching the final 4 of both IEM Katowice and ESL Pro League.

What’s more, with the likes of Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyljev in their ranks, the Ukrainians will no doubt fancy their chances of making some waves in this tournament as they seek to get back to the glory days of 2021 when they swept aside seemingly everything that lay in their wake.

Heroic will be looking to dust themselves off after being eliminated by, you’ve guessed it, NAVI, at ESL Pro League, as they seek to establish themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the world of CS:GO. The Norwegians managed to reach the final of IEM Katowice 2023, only to be denied the grand prize by a then resurgent G2 Esports, and will no doubt fancy their chances of reaching the latter stages of this tournament.

Whatever happens, this looks set to be a gripping tournament that’s bound to have us all on the edge of our seats.