Team Vitality wins IEM Rio 2023

In the evening of April 23rd the Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2023 ended. Team Vitality became the champion of the tournament.

On their way to the finals, Team Vitality finished 3rd in Group B, which qualified them for the quarterfinals of the playoffs. In the knockout matches, Vitality defeated BIG (2-0) and then Cloud9 (2-1). In the final, they faced Heroic. The Danish team finished 3rd in Group A on their way to the finals. In the playoffs, they defeated FURIA Esports (2-1) and Natus Vincere (2-0).

The best-of-3 finals started with a win for Team Vitality on their pick (16:13 - Vertigo). After that, Vitality proved to be stronger on the Heroic pick (16:12 - Inferno). The final score of the series was 2-0 in favor of Vitality.

With a final rating of 1.31, ZywOo was named MVP of the tournament.

By winning the tournament, Team Vitality not only earned the $100,000 in prize money, but also qualified for the IEM Cologne 2023. Heroic earned $42,000, and Natus Vincere and Cloud9 each received $20,000 for sharing 3rd and 4th place.

The IEM Cologne 2023, with a prize pool of $1,000,000, will take place in Germany from July 25th to August 6th. The organizers said that if there is a full release of Counter-Strike 2 by that time, the tournament will be held on this version of the game.