- Slot distribution for IEM Rio to remain the same
- Teams who placed top 16 in Antwerp receive invites to next RMR
Following the release of Valve's standardized Major cycle system in early 2022, a method for adjusting the regional slot distribution at the Majors was added to account for the departed legacy invite system.
Much like the old system, the distribution is based on teams' performance from the previous Major, allocating Legends status spots to regions whose teams made it to the playoffs and Challengers spots to the regions who placed 9th-16th.
Imperial secured Americas an additional Challenger spot For the Americas region, critical performances came in the form of Liquid and Imperial. Securing key upset victories in their 2-2 matches during the Challengers stage and advancing to the next phase kept their hopes of making it farther in the Major alive and secured a better path for their region in the future.
While the distribution of Contenders slots always remains the same at three for Europe, three for the Americas, and two for Asia, the distribution for the Legends and Challengers is directly tied to the results of the previous Major. In this case, Liquid and Imperial making the top 16 stage in Antwerp secured the Americas two Challengers slots at the following Major.
Below is shown the regional distribution for the IEM Rio 2022 Major followed by the team that earned their region that spot due to their performance at PGL Antwerp:
Legends
Unknown flag cis Europe (Spirit)
Unknown flag cis Europe (Natus Vincere)
Unknown flag cis Europe (ENCE)
Unknown flag cis Europe (Ninjas in Pyjamas)
Unknown flag cis Europe (FaZe)
Unknown flag cis Europe (Copenhagen Flames)
Unknown flag cis Europe (HEROIC)

Americas (FURIA) Challengers
Unknown flag cis Europe (G2)
Unknown flag cis Europe (Vitality)
Unknown flag cis Europe (BIG)

Americas (Imperial)
Unknown flag cis Europe (Cloud9)
Unknown flag cis Europe (Outsiders)
Unknown flag cis Europe (Bad News Eagles)

Americas (Liquid) Contenders
Unknown flag cis Europe
Unknown flag cis Europe

Americas

Asia
Unknown flag cis Europe

Americas

Americas

Asia Another benefit of placing in the top 16 portion of the Major is receiving an invite to the next Regional Major Ranking tournament for each team's respective region. With the open qualification process being historically so brutal, being able to start directly in the RMR event itself can be very important for a team's chances at repeat qualifying.
On another important note, as a result of the number of slots for each region being the exact same for IEM Rio, the formats of the RMR tournaments will also remain the same, pending any changes from Valve.

FaZe #1 
Finn 'karrigan' Andersen
Håvard 'rain' Nygaard
Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken
Robin 'ropz' Kool
Helvijs 'broky' Saukants 
Natus Vincere #2 
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev
Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov
Kirill 'Boombl4' Mikhailov
Ilya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy
Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy 

Bad News Eagles #19 

Rigon 'rigoN' Gashi
Sener 'SENER1' Mahmuti
Flatron 'juanflatroo' Halimi
Dionis 'sinnopsyy' Budeci
Genc 'gxx-' Kolgeci 
Cloud9 #9 
Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov
Timofey 'interz' Yakushin
Sergey 'Ax1Le' Rykhtorov
Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov
Vladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov 

BIG #16 

Johannes 'tabseN' Wodarz
Tizian 'tiziaN' Feldbusch
Florian 'syrsoN' Rische
Josef 'faveN' Baumann
Karim 'Krimbo' Moussa 

Ninjas in Pyjamas #5 

Patrick 'es3tag' Hansen
Fredrik 'REZ' Sterner
Hampus 'hampus' Poser
Ludvig 'Brollan' Brolin
Nicolas 'Plopski' Gonzalez Zamora 
Vitality #10 
Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire
Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen
Emil 'Magisk' Reif
Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut
Kévin 'misutaaa' Rabier 
Imperial #15 
Lincoln 'fnx' Lau
Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo
Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga
Ricardo 'boltz' Prass
Vinicius 'VINI' Figueiredo 
Outsiders #14 
Timur 'buster' Tulepov
Evgenii 'FL1T' Lebedev
Alexey 'Qikert' Golubev
Dzhami 'Jame' Ali
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis 

HEROIC #4 

Casper 'cadiaN' Møller
Ismail 'refrezh' Ali
Martin 'stavn' Lund
René 'TeSeS' Madsen
Rasmus 'sjuush' Beck 
ENCE #3 
Marco 'Snappi' Pfeiffer
Pavle 'Maden' Bošković
Paweł 'dycha' Dycha
Olek 'hades' Miskiewicz
Lotan 'Spinx' Giladi 
G2 #7 
Audric 'JACKZ' Jug
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
Nemanja 'huNter-' Kovač
Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen
Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov 
Liquid #13 
Richard 'shox' Papillon
Nick 'nitr0' Cannella
Keith 'NAF' Markovic
Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski
Josh 'oSee' Ohm 
FURIA #8 
Andrei 'arT' Piovezan
Yuri 'yuurih' Santos
Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato
Rafael 'saffee' Costa
André 'drop' Abreu 
Copenhagen Flames #11 
Rasmus 'HooXi' Nielsen
Nico 'nicoodoz' Tamjidi
Fredrik 'roeJ' Jørgensen
Jakob 'jabbi' Nygaard
Rasmus 'Zyphon' Nordfoss 

Spirit #6 

Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakov
Abdul 'degster' Gasanov
Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev
Pavel 'S1ren' Ogloblin
Robert 'Patsi' Isyanov