On November 9, the last matches of the Legends stage at the IEM Rio Major ended, as a result of which the final list of teams that qualified for the playoffs of the tournament became known. The last places in the next stage were won by MOUZ, Natus Vincere and Spirit.
The playoffs in single-elimination format start on Thursday. It will begin with a match between fnatic and Outsiders, which is scheduled for 20:00 Moscow time. Interestingly, these two teams have already met at Rio. At the Challengers stage, Outsiders turned out to be stronger, beating the European squad with a score of 2 – 0.
Another Russian team, Cloud9, will begin its journey to the playoffs with a match against MOUZ, which will also take place on Thursday. At the group stage, Cloud9 had to go through several unpleasant moments: at first it was in danger of relegation, losing two matches in a row, but then it was able to make it to the playoffs, winning three victories one after another.
Two more quarterfinal matches will take place on Friday. Heroic will meet with Spirit, and the Brazilian FURIA will face off against Natus Vincere.
The semi-finals, in which the winners of the listed matches will advance, will take place on Saturday, and the grand final will begin on Saturday at 21:00.
