IEM Katowice 2020 Teams, Dates, Tickets Wrapup!
IEM Katowice - one of ESL’s two flagship events - approaches rapidly as all the teams have been finalized. The event, although not a major any longer, is still iconic and one of the high points of CS:GO. With the Oceanic qualifier finishing up, we now have the full teams list.
2020’s Katowice will be the first ESL Masters Championship where the Pro Tour comes into partial effect. Three teams received their slots from tournaments won in 2019. Astralis, Mousesports and Fnatic each come through with wins in flagship ESL and Dreamhack events.
From there, nine teams were directly invited in, leaving four teams to qualify through the respective regions of Asia, Oceania, Europe and North America. The final team list includes:
- Astralis - Champions of IEM Beijing [Rank 1]
- Mousesports - Champions of EPL Season 10 [Rank 2]
- Fnatic - Champions of Dreamhack Masters Malmo 2019 [Rank 4]
- Team Liquid - Invited [Rank 3]
- Evil Geniuses - Invited [Rank 5]
- Team Vitality - Invited [Rank 6]
- 100 Thieves - Invited [Rank 7]
- Natus Vincere - Invited [Rank 8]
- Ninjas in Pyjamas - Invited [Rank 10]
- Virtus. Pro - Invited [Rank 17]
- FaZe Clan - European Qualifier [Rank 9]
- G2 Esports - European Qualifier [Rank 11]
- Cloud9 - North American Qualifier [Rank 18]
- MAD Lions - European Qualifier [Rank 19]
- Renegades - Oceanic Qualifier [Rank 25]
- ViCi Gaming - Asian Qualifier [Unseeded]
The tournament itself will take place at the now iconic Spodek arena in Katowice from the 25th of February through the 1st of March, and tickets are available on the official IEM website, where they’re going up in waves so make sure to buy yours soon before they sell out!
Future ESL Masters Championships - which as of now only include IEM Katowice and ESL One Cologne - are going to invite seeds one through eight determined by a combination of the ESL Pro Tour ranking and Masters event wins. While the exact combination of championship wins to rankings is yet unknown, it’s safe to assume that teams able to win $250,000+ Masters events will receive enough ranking points to have their place in the top 8 guaranteed. The remaining 8 teams will be expected to go through a LAN qualifier.
Image via ESL