The IEM Rio Major had the least Diamond Pick ‘Em coins in recent CS:GO Major history

The IEM Rio CS:GO Major certainly produced some of the most surprising results ever seen at one of Valve’s most prestigioius CS:GO events, and that was most definitively reflected in the final results of the Rio Pick ‘Em challenge.

Per data gathered from Leetify, a CS:GO analytics tool and performance tracker, only 0.1 percent of Pick ‘Em players reached the highest level possible, earning Diamond coin status. It’s easily the lowest rate of Diamond coins over the past five Majors, far below the next lowest in StarLadder Berlin with eight percent Diamond coins and PGL Antwerp which had 11 percent Diamond coins.

To achieve Diamond status for a Major Pick ‘Em coin, participating players must complete successfully complete all challenges across all three stages. This includes correctly guessing the majority of teams to advance past Challengers and Legends Stage and correctly guessing most or all results of the playoff matches for the entire Champions Stage. Players also had to correctly guess 3-0 and 0-3 teams in both the Challengers and Legends Stage.

At virtually every stage of IEM Rio, there were surprising twists that left a vast majority of Pick ‘Ems in shambles. In Challengers Stage, the home crowd buff did nothing for 00 Nation and Imperial Esports who both surprisingly went 0-3. Popular 0-3 picks IHC Esports and Grayhound from Oceania/Asia each avoided an 0-3 result. Finally, popular 3-0 picks like Cloud9 and Vitality stumbled out of the gate, and 3-0 picks that qualify for the next without a 3-0 record always put Pick ‘Ems in jeopardy.

The biggest shock of Legends Stage was easily the absolutely stunning 0-3 showing from reigning Major champions FaZe. Many Pick ‘Em players had FaZe going through, or even in their 3-0 spot. C9 and FURIA’s 3-0 runs were also unexpected, as was the playoff qualifying runs from Fnatic and MOUZ.

Lastly, Champions Stage Pick ‘Ems were thrown off completely by both Cloud9 and NAVI losing in quarterfinals, and the believers who had FURIA going all the way had their hopes dashed by the heroic semifinals comeback by Heroic. An Outsiders vs. Heroic grand final was not a matchup that many anticipated to closed out IEM Rio, and with the way the rest of the Major had already gone, it pretty much insured that Diamond coin output this tournament would be at an all-time low.