ESL changes RMR hosting platform after Brazilian backlash

After an embarrassing first round of matches on ESEA between Europe, North America, and Brazil, ESL has elected to move the IEM Rio RMR qualifiers from ESEA to FACEIT, but only for the IEM Road to Rio South American Open Qualifiers.

Over the course of the first day, several issues were immediately noticeable; players had difficulty entering their matches, GOTVs were unable to be accessed, and the start times had to be continuously pushed back. With all of these issues contributing to a difficult match experience, there were only three rounds played on the first day of the qualifier instead of the five intended.

Additionally, due to the GOTV relay issues, there at least one match that had to be stopped due to a DDoS attack. On the second day of the qualifier, the Meta BR vs 00 Nation match was stopped during the 5th round because of such an attack. In an official statement released today, ESL blamed a CS:GO update, downed Steam servers, and an unprecedented number of sign-ups for the event, as reasons for the server shortage.

ESL also announced that all players and teams that have signed up for the remaining qualifiers on ESEA have been notified regarding this change, however, they will not be transferred to FACEIT's platform automatically. Because of the change, the events now start one hour later than the original times, in order to allow any last-minute signups on the FACEIT platform to be completed before the start.

South Americans can sign up for the second qualifier here and the third qualifier here.