[1] The draw of the tournament was held on December 21, 2012, 11:00 UTC−3, at the CONMEBOL Convention Centre in Luque, Paraguay.
The seeding of each team was determined by which associations reached the furthest stage in the previous Copa Libertadores.
[1] The following were the seeding of the 12 teams entered into the first stage draw: Tigre Grêmio São Paulo Iquique Deportes Tolima Olimpia Bolívar LDU Quito León Universidad César Vallejo Defensor Sporting Deportivo Anzoátegui In the first stage, each tie was played on a home-and-away two-legged basis.
If still tied, the penalty shoot-out was used to determine the winner (no extra time was played).
The winners of each tie advanced to the second stage to join the 26 automatic qualifiers.