Americas to lose one Major slot at Paris
Introduced before the Antwerp Major, Valve's most recent Major rulebook laid down the rules for regional RMRs and the number of slots appointed to each region. With only three American teams moving to the Legends stage at the IEM Rio Major, we will see one fewer American team at the Paris Major.
As can be read in Valve's Major rulebook, the number of teams a region sends to the Major is determined by the number of teams they had in the top 16 of the previous Major as well as a few extra contenders slots: 3 in the case of Americas and Europe, 2 in the case of Asia.
Because no Asian team made it out of the Challengers stage, again we will see two Asian teams in Paris. However, in the case of the American teams, the only Legends appearances will come from Liquid and FURIA. Given the three extra spots appointed to the region, that gives a total of five American teams at the Paris Major. The number of European slots will increase from 16 to 17.
Other than the obvious decrease, this development also brings up an interesting point regarding the format of the Americas RMR. In the RMR for the Rio Major, the three teams that ended 3-2 ended up battling for the last remaining Contender slot. If the Americas RMR keeps the same Swiss format as previously, it would mean two losses would be enough for a team to miss out on their Major contention since after all is said and done, there are two 3-0 teams and three 3-1 teams, making up the five representatives.
Whether or not the format will change is undetermined, but nonetheless, there will be one fewer American teams in Paris come six months from now.
