Vitality, Falcons, FURIA, MOUZ move on at IEM Rio

Team Vitality, Team Falcons, FURIA and MOUZ qualified for the playoff stage at the $300,000 Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2026 with victories Tuesday in Brazil.

Those four teams moved into the upper-bracket final of their respective groups, where they'll vie for playoff seeding. Vitality will face Falcons in the Group A upper-bracket final and Group B will see FURIA clash with MOUZ.

Sixteen Counter-Strike 2 teams are competing in this week's competition for a top prize of $125,000.

The double-elimination group stage began with two groups of eight teams, with all matches best-of-three. The group winners advance to the playoff semifinals, with the group runners-up entering the quarterfinals as high seeds and the third-place teams entering the quarterfinals as low seeds.

The single-elimination playoffs start Friday with all matches best-of-three until Sunday's best-of-five grand final.

On Tuesday, Vitality rallied past G2 Esports 2-1, falling 13-5 on Mirage before squeezing out a 16-13 overtime victory on Inferno and claiming Dust II 13-11. Team Falcons had an easier go of things, sweeping Team Spirit 13-4 on Anubis and 13-5 on Mirage.

In the Group B upper bracket, FURIA had to rally from a game down against Natus Vincere. After losing a 13-3 blowout on Mirage, FURIA answered in kind, 13-4 on Dust II, then prevailed 16-13 in OT on Nuke. Meanwhile, MOUZ blanked Aurora Gaming 13-4 on Dust II and 12-8 on Mirage.

The other four matches, in the Group A and B lower brackets, saw the first four eliminations of the tournament.

In Group A, RED Canids advanced 2-1 past Gentle Mates and 3DMAX beat Team Liquid 2-0. In Group B, B8 shut out Passion UA 2-0 and HOTU eliminated Legacy by the same scoreline.

The group stage concludes Wednesday with eight matches:

Group A

--Team Vitality vs. Team Falcons (upper-bracket final)

--Team Spirit vs. RED Canids (lower-bracket semifinal)

--G2 Esports vs. 3DMAX (lower-bracket semifinal)

--TBD vs. TBD (lower-bracket final)

Group B

--FURIA vs. MOUZ (upper-bracket final)

--Aurora Gaming vs. B8 (lower-bracket semifinal)

--Natus Vincere vs. HOTU (lower-bracket semifinal)

--TBD vs. TBD (lower-bracket final)

IEM Rio prize pool:

1. $125,000

2. $50,000

3. $30,000

4. $20,000

5-6. $12,500

7-8. $7,000

9-12. $5,000

13-16. $4,000 -- Gentle Mates, Team Liquid, Passion UA, Legacy

--Field Level Media