IEM Rio 2026 playoffs: Preview
With the group stage of IEM Rio 2026 coming to a close, six teams have locked in their playoffs spots. Falcons broke Vitality's win streak in group A and have confirmed their semi-final spot while Vitality will take on NAVI who made it through from the lower bracket of group B. NAVI were denied a title win at BLAST Open Rotterdam by Vitality in the grand-final and the former has now set up a rematch in the quarter-final of IEM Rio.
Another team that fell to Falcons in group A, Spirit, took down RED Canids and G2 in the lower bracket to advance to the quarter-final. They will go up against MOUZ, who were denied a clean group stage by FURIA in the upper final of group B. Winners of both groups- Falcons and FURIA will await their opponents in the semi-final with the latter being the only home team left at IEM Rio.
IEM Rio 2026 will host a single-elimination best-of-three playoffs featuring six teams and concludes with a best-of-five grand final this Sunday on 19th April 2026. A event carries a prize pool of $1,000,000 USD and counts towards the progression of ESL Grand Slam. Vitality are currently three match wins away from securing their second Grand Slam. If Vitality reaches the grand-final but are taken down, their opponent gets an additional $100,000 USD on top of the prescribed prize money as the "giant-killer" bonus for denying Vitality a Grand Slam win.
Here's how the playoffs bracket has shaped up:
-
Spirit vs 
MOUZ | 17/04/26; 08:30 PM IST | (Winner faces Falcons) -
NAVI vs
Vitality | 17/04/26; 11:45 PM IST | (Winner faces 
FURIA)
SpiritMOUZ| Spirit |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Andrey 'tN1R' Tatarinovich |
39 - 18 | +21 | 105.7 | 92.3% | 1.86 |
| Danil 'donk' Kryshkovets |
35 - 23 | +12 | 90.8 | 76.9% | 1.42 |
| Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov |
30 - 17 | +13 | 78.6 | 79.5% | 1.29 |
 Myroslav 'zont1x' Plakhotia |
29 - 22 | +7 | 81.7 | 82.1% | 1.21 |
| Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev |
14 - 20 | -6 | 41.1 | 66.7% | 0.81 |
| MOUZ |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jimi 'Jimpphat' Salo |
23 - 28 | -5 | 64.2 | 64.1% | 0.95 |
 Lotan 'Spinx' Giladi |
24 - 30 | -6 | 64.4 | 66.7% | 0.95 |
| Dorian 'xertioN' Berman |
25 - 30 | -5 | 70.6 | 61.5% | 0.82 |
 Ludvig 'Brollan' Brolin |
14 - 32 | -18 | 54.7 | 48.7% | 0.56 |
 Ádám 'torzsi' Torzsás |
14 - 28 | -14 | 47.9 | 48.7% | 0.53 |
VitalityNatus Vincere| Vitality |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut |
44 - 15 | +29 | 120.3 | 86.1% | 1.92 |
| Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire |
35 - 15 | +20 | 102.8 | 88.9% | 1.70 |
| Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan |
28 - 26 | +2 | 83.7 | 86.1% | 1.16 |
 Robin 'ropz' Kool |
19 - 19 | +0 | 63.0 | 80.6% | 1.01 |
 William 'mezii' Merriman |
16 - 18 | -2 | 49.2 | 75.0% | 0.86 |
| Natus Vincere |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy |
23 - 30 | -7 | 72.1 | 80.6% | 1.01 |
| Ihor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov |
25 - 28 | -3 | 64.7 | 63.9% | 1.01 |
| Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen |
19 - 28 | -9 | 55.8 | 50.0% | 0.80 |
 Drin 'makazze' Shaqiri |
12 - 29 | -17 | 41.7 | 52.8% | 0.63 |
 Mihai 'iM' Ivan |
14 - 28 | -14 | 51.8 | 52.8% | 0.55 |
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