ESL announce invites for Pro League Season 23 & IEM Rio 2026

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 15/01/2026

ESL have announced their invites for their next two Tier 1 events at Pro League Season 23 and IEM Rio 2026.

The events, running from March 1-15 and April 13-19, feature invites based on the January 5 VRS snapshot.

The events largely feature the top Counter-Strike teams in the VRS, but both feature notable absentees.

Vitality and Falcons skip Pro League Season 23

Vitality and Falcons have chosen not to attend ESL Pro League Season 23. It is thought that the decision goes beyond the usual incentive to manage players’ energy levels and overall burden.

As only the event’s playoffs are on LAN, the event is an unrewarding one from a VRS perspective, making it an attractive event to skip in a packed schedule.

ESL Pro League 24 in Katowice will feature a full-LAN schedule, meaning it is likely that fewer teams will skip that event, but it will feature 16 teams, instead of 24.

As a result of Vitality and Falcons’ absences, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Passion UA will attend the event, with Aurora and B8 moving up to a Stage 2 start in Pro League.

Lynn Vision will miss out on the event following their one-event ban from Tier 1 ESL events. The ban results from Visa issues, which prevented Lynn Vision from attending Pro League Season 22.

As the Visa issues were determined to be the fault of the organisation, a one-event ban was applied to Lynn Vision, with ESL Pro League Season 23 being the first eligible event to which Lynn Vision earned an invite.

As a result, FUT benefits from the final spot in Stage 1 of the event.

ESL Pro League Season 23 invites are:

Stage 2:

• Furia
• Spirit
• Natus Vincere
• Mouz
• FaZe
• The MongolZ
• Aurora
• B8

Stage 1:

• Legacy
• G2
• Liquid
• 3DMAX
• Astralis
• Heroic
• paiN
• FUT
• NiP
• Passion UA
• Parivision
• NRG
• Gaimin Gladiators
• Semper Fi
• M80
• Monte

FaZe and The MongolZ reject IEM Rio invites

ESL announced the thirteen teams to be directly invited into the main event of IEM Rio 2026, with the remaining three spots coming through the Closed Qualifiers.

FaZe and The MongolZ have rejected their invites for the main event, with several teams rejecting invites to the online Closed Qualifiers.

As a result, Team Liquid and 3DMAX are invited directly into the main event.

Two spots of the remaining three spots will come from the global CQ, with the remaining team coming from the Americas CQ.

Astralis, NiP, and FlyQuest rejected their invites to the Closed Qualifiers, and paiN, NRG, and M80 rejected their invites to the Americas Closed Qualifiers.

Both the Americas and Global Closed Qualifiers will be supplemented by four teams which make it through the Open Qualifiers, running from January 16-17.

IEM Rio 2026 invites are:

• Passion UA
• Furia
• Vitality
• Falcons
• Spirit
• Natus Vincere
• Mouz
• Aurora
• B8
• Legacy
• G2
• Liquid
• 3DMAX

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.

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