Scheduled to be the inaugural event of the Counter-Strike Intel Extreme Masters series in 2024, IEM Katowice will feature a LAN format in the Polish town of Katowice.
The selection process involved a combination of ESL’s world ranking and victories in various ESL tournaments.
Kicking off on January 31 with the play-in stage, 16 teams will engage in a double-elimination bracket.
Teams facing two losses will be eliminated, while those securing two wins will advance to the main event.
Subsequently, eight teams from the play-in will progress to the group stage, commencing on February 3, joining the eight teams directly invited.
In the group stage, the initial teams will be distributed into two double-elimination best-of-three groups.
Teams securing first place in their groups will advance to the semi-finals, while the second and third-placed teams will head to the quarter-finals.
The grand final of IEM Katowice 2024 will be a best-of-five showdown.
The tournament organizers recently unveiled the seeding of the participating teams through their official social media channels.
Notably, the complete list of participants, including those in the play-in stage and those directly entering the group stage, was simultaneously disclosed.
ALL 24 TEAMS INVITED TO #IEM KATOWICE 2024
Which teams do you think are going to set the Hall of Heroes alight?
Group Stage
Play-in Stage pic.twitter.com/QUYWyi0M6P— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) December 18, 2023
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ESL FACEIT Group (EFG), a prominent player in the esports and video game entertainment industry, revealed its ambitious 2024 program for the ESL Pro Tour (EPT) for Counter-Strike.
The announcement comes just as anticipation builds for the forthcoming launch of Counter-Strike 2, which has fans, players, and industry partners are excited for fresh changes, additions, and returning features.
The ESL Pro Tour aims to streamline the competitive Counter-Strike landscape, consolidating various ESL tournaments into a single, dedicated circuit. The tour is designed with multiple tiers of competition, including EPT Championship, EPT Masters, and EPT Challenger.
These varying levels offer a “clear and consistent opportunity” for players across the skill spectrum��from aspiring amateurs to established professionals��to compete and hone their abilities.
With these changes, ESL FACEIT Group is positioning itself and the ESL Pro Tour as the cornerstone of what promises to be an electrifying year for Counter-Strike esports.
Whether you’re a player striving to break into the professional ranks or a fan eager for gripping tournament action, the 2024 ESL Pro Tour is shaping up to be an essential part of the global esports calendar.
The ESL Pro Tour has definitely got some events that are more lucrative, draw more fan engagement and feature better players. The Counter-Strike events on the ESL Pro Tour that you should not miss include:
IEM Katowice 2024: January 31st �C February 11th
IEM China 2024: April 8th �C April 14th
ESL Pro League Season 19: April 23rd �C May 12th
IEM Dallas 2024: May 27th �C June 2nd
IEM Cologne 2024: August 7th �C August 18th
ESL Pro League Season 20: September 3rd �C September 22nd
IEM Fall 2024: October 7th �C October 13th
The ESL Challenger Events are the tier dwon from the Pro Tour, but many of the top players will be partaking in these tournaments during the year. ESL Challenger events are also a fertile breeding ground for the top players, with young guns generally coming through this pathway. Key dates for ESL Challenger events in 2024 include:
ESL Challenger #56: April 26th �C April 28th
ESL Challenger #57: June 14th �C June 16th
ESL Challenger Atlanta: October 4th �C October 6th
ESL Challenger #59: November 22nd �C November 24th
Locations for ESL Challenger #56, #57, and #59 are yet to be announced, but these should be finalised shortly.
There are also the online ESL Challenger Leagues, which run worldwide over several months. Key dates for 2024 online ESL Challenger events include:
ESL Challenger League Season 47: February �C June
ESL Challenger League Season 48: July �C November
Set to unfold at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre (MITEC), ESL One Kuala Lumpur boasts a robust prize pool of USD $1m.
The ESL Kuala Lumpur 2023, which will run from December 11-17, promises to be an electrifying event, spotlighting 12 elite Dota 2 squads from across the globe. Commencing with a three-day Group Stage, two clusters of six teams will vie for supremacy in a single round-robin format.
The upper echelon, the top six teams, will then secure their spots for the live Playoffs, scheduled between December 15 and 17, in a double elimination format.
Shane Clarke, holding the reins as the Director of Game Ecosystems �C Dota 2 at the ESL FACEIT Group, shared insights about the decision to reroute another ESL One edition to Malaysia.
��We know Dota fans across South-East Asia have been eagerly waiting for the return of ESL One for over a year now,” he said.
“This December, we��re bringing back ESL One, bigger & more accessible than ever before, as we move the tournament from Genting to Kuala Lumpur for the first time.”
Historically, ESL has brought Dota 2 tournaments to Malaysia on three occasions, albeit in Genting. Encouragingly, the most recent event, ESL One Malaysia 2022, garnered an impressive viewership, peaking at 363,000 and logging close to 9.68 million watch hours, according to online sources.
Intriguingly, there might be a schedule clash. The ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 is seemingly coinciding with another titan of a competition, the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang M5 World Championship.
Latest updates indicate that this championship, marking the culmination of the MLBB 2023 season, will span two venues – Kuala Lumpur for the Wildcard stage and the Philippines for the Main stage �C in November and December.
]]>?En route to the win, TeamOne were able to recover from the lower bracket of the tournament and faced off against ATK and North American esports franchise Nouns. Now, the Brazilian team will participate in the US$100,000 Dutch tournament, which kicks off on October 14.? ?
TeamOne played against Nouns in the first round of the NA closed qualifiers and were able to win both Overpass and Ancient. They continued advancing until they played against ATK in the upper-bracket final and were dealt a relatively one-sided defeat. ?
?After moving down to the lower bracket, TeamOne met the Nouns again and faced off against the team in a rematch. TeamOne came out on top once again and moved on to the tournament’s grand finals.
Their rematch with ATK yielded different results this time, entirely in TeamOne��s favor. The team cruised through ATK in a clean sweep on Overpass and Mirage after getting 16-9 and 16-10 wins, respectively.? ?
The win and forthcoming tournament will give TeamOne the opportunity to stay in Europe for longer after the IEM Road to Rio Americas RMR, which will begin a week before the ESL Challenger LAN. The Rotterdam event will be TeamOne��s first LAN event facing off against international opponents since they participated in the 2021 IEM Cologne Play-In.
North America will not have any squad representing the region in ESL Challenger Rotterdam. All four teams that previously qualified were from the CIS and Europe.? ?
During the tournament, TeamOne will go against opponents like Movistar Riders, ENCE, Nixuh, MOUZ, Fluxo, Eternal Fire, and Outsiders. The Brazilian team will most likely be the crowd favorite due to their first-place finish in Group C of ESL Pro League Season 16 Group C.? ?
The ESL Challenger Rotterdam tournament boast a $100,000 prize pool, half of which will be awarded to the winner. The champion will also get a spot in the upcoming ESL Pro League Season 17 Conference, which will have six teams admitted directly to the event��s group stage.
]]>ESL One: Cologne was scheduled to start on July 23 at the Lanxess-Arena, but those plans were scuppered with Germany’s announcement that lockdown measures would remain in place until the end of August at least. Instead, the CS:GO event will be played behind closed doors during the final weeks of the European summer.
“In the spirit of esports and to keep the competition for players going, this summer��s ESL Pro Tour Masters Championship in Cologne will be transformed into a broadcasted tournament without a live audience on 21-30 August,” read the announcement.
While some parts of Australia could begin easing restrictions in the next few weeks, the state government of Victoria has taken a conservative stance and appears unlikely to budge anytime soon. As such, IEM Melbourne will not take place until August next year.
“IEM Melbourne will no longer take place in 2020, and instead has been rescheduled to 2021. The decision has been reached in light of the current global health situation, and is in line with local restrictions on gatherings,” said the ESL statement.
“We will be heading to Rod Laver Arena at the 2021 edition of the Melbourne Esports Open, which will take place over the weekend of August 21-22, 2021.”
The ESL also declared that fans who have already bought their tickets will be able to use them for next year’s editions. If a ticketholder cannot attend the rescheduled event, they can claim a full refund by the end of 2020.
Meanwhile, the Counter-Strike Professional Players’ Association (CSPPA) and various tournament organisers are currently in talks about changing the dates of the summer and winter player breaks. The summer break was originally scheduled for June 29 to July 31, but it could be shifted to July 15 until August 15 now that ESL One: Cologne has been moved.
]]>OG and Virtus.pro are slated to clash this Thursday in the second-to-last matchday of ESL Pro League Season 11: Europe.
OG have put up some impressive results throughout their ESL Pro League venture, including wins over TYLOO (2-0), mousesports (2-1) and G2 Esports (2-0). Although OG’s triumph over TYLOO was expected, Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen and co. deserve all the praise they can get for defeating mouz and IEM Katowice runners-up G2.
The match against mousesports started with Finn ��karrigan�� Andersen and his crew securing a 1-0 lead by edging past OG in overtime (19-16) on Mirage. However, the no.4 team in the world were utterly destroyed on Train (5-16) and Inferno (2-16) thanks to the phenomenal performances of Mateusz “mantuu” Wilczewski and Valdemar “valde” Bj?rn, who ended the series with 1.32 and 1.31 HLTV ratings respectively.
OG managed to carry that momentum into their clash with G2, where they produced one of the biggest upsets of the tournament with a 16-7 scoreline on Mirage and 16-8 on Dust II. Again, it was valde (1.43 rating) and mantuu (1.21 rating) who stepped up for OG, while their teammates Nathan “NBK-” Schmitt and Issa “ISSAA” Murad averaged 1.28 and 1.17 ratings respectively. It seems like the online format suits OG, as this is probably the strongest version of this team we have seen since their inception in December 2019.
Unlike OG, who are on the rise, Virtus.pro have been struggling since December when they acquired the AVANGAR CS:GO roster in a bid to re-establish themselves as one of the top dogs in the scene.
Shortly after signing Dauren “AdreN” Kystaubayev and his crew, Virtus.pro finished top four at cs_summit 5 after suffering a 1-2 reverse sweep at the hands of G2 in the semi-finals. While that was a decent result, the seventh-eighth place finish at EPICENTER 2019 and DreamHack Open Leipzig, followed by fifth-sixth at ICE Challenge 2020 and first-round elimination from IEM Katowice were not exactly what the CIS squad were hoping for.
Virtus.pro entered ESL Pro League S11 hoping to end their cold streak, but they ran into a wall when they lost to FaZe (0-2) in round one. While Virtus had a legitimate chance to win at least one map, poor performances from AdreN and Sanjar “SANJI” Kuliev denied them that feat.
AdreN and SANJI averaged 0.89 and 0.81 ratings respectively in their series with FaZe, which is only an extension of their shaky showings in recent months. Although the duo looked slightly better in Virtus.pro’s defeat against mousesports (0-2) on Tuesday, their 0.97 and 0.96 ratings are nothing to write home about.
It’s tough to find a solid argument in favour of Virtus.pro, who are in desperate need of a roster change if they wish to compete against the top teams. With all due respect, AdreN and SANJI are holding this squad back and should be on the chopping block.
OG might not have achieved anything spectacular since their top-four finish at cs_summit 5 back in December, but they are looking very sharp in the ESL Pro League. With wins over mousesports and G2 under their belt, OG should have no issues against a struggling Virtus.pro.
Business associates and Quincy Crew are set to duke it out on Matchday 2 in the North American section of the ESL One Los Angeles Online Major, in what will be their second-to-last match of the tournament before the playoffs.
Quincy Crew’s squad have returned to fight under their old banner following their departure from Chaos Esports Club earlier this month, when the North American esports organisation decided to call it quits on their Dota2 project due to COVID-19 outbreak.
Representing Quincy Crew are now Yawar “YawaR” Hassan, Quinn “Quinn” Callahan, Arif “MSS” Anwar, Malthe “Biver” Winther and Avery “SVG” Silverman. The one new member of this Quincy squad compared to the previous incarnation is Biver, who takes over the role formerly occupied by Jon��? “SabeRLight-” Volek.
YawaR and co. had a few impressive showings as Chaos, including first place at DreamLeague Season 13 North America Closed Qualifiers and runner-up finishes at DOTA Summit 11 and ESL One LA Major NA qualifiers. Despite their strong performances in qualifiers, however, Chaos EC failed to deliver at Leipzig Major, where they finished 13th-16th after they lost to Aster in round one of the playoffs.
That did not stop Yawar’s squad from putting up a very impressive show at LA Major qualifiers, where they forced Evil Geniuses into a three-map series and defeated business associates twice with a 4-1 aggregate score.
Joining the clash of the organisation-less teams are business associates, a quintet of players which formerly represented J.Storm before the North American outfit decided to release their members without warning earlier this year.
While playing under J.Storm, Clinton “Fear” Loomis and co. had a fairly successful run on the Dota Pro Circuit. They pocketed top-six finishes at DreamLeague Season 12 and the MDL Chengdu Major, but success has been hard to come by since then and it seems like the lack of proper training facilities and financial backing has taken a toll on the team.
Business associates finished third at ESL One Los Angeles NA Major Closed Qualifiers and later put up two underwhelming displays at StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor Season 3 and WeSave! Charity Play – North America, where they finished seventh-eighth and third-fourth respectively.
Perhaps it would be fair to give business associates some slack for their WeSave! Charity Play placement, given that it was a charity event and that they took Evil Geniuses to three maps, but it is hard to overlook their defeats to forZe and BOOM Esports at the StarLadder tournament.
Quincy Crew are priced as heavy favourites to pocket a W here, which is fair when you consider they defeated business associates twice at the ESL One Los Angeles 2020 North America Closed Qualifier. That said, the outsiders should not be underestimated.
It’s easy to forget how strong J.Storm used to be. While they were never one of the top teams in the Dota 2 esports scene, they had their fair share of impressive results.
Most J.Storm’s success was due to Fear, who is one of the most storied Dota2 player-coaches and widely regarded as the best Dota2 player from North America. He might not be the player he once was, but his experience and leadership are invaluable assets.
Fear��s presence might not be enough to inspire business associates to an upset win, but the underdogs have what it takes to force a three-map series.
Team Adroit and Fnatic will meet on the battlefield for the second time this year on Matchday 2 of the Southeast Asian division of the ESL One Los Angeles 2020 Dota2 Major.
Fnatic enter Tuesday’s bout as the favourites, which is not all too shocking as Djardel “DJ” Mampusti and co. are widely regarded as one of the top Southeast Asian Dota2 esports teams besides TNC Predator.
Since finishing 13th-19th at The International 2019, Fnatic have had quite a colourful journey through their competitive endeavours. At the start of October they pocketed silver at Midas Mode 2 Asia and a top-two finish at MDL Chengdu Major SEA Closed qualifiers, which set them up for success at the first Dota2 Major of the season. However, things did not go as planned for Anucha “Jabz” Jirawong’s men, who crashed out of the Chinese Major in round two after suffering a reverse-sweep against Invictus Gaming.
At the end of the year, Fnatic had another strong showing in the DreamLeague Season 13 SEA Closed Qualifier, where they humiliated TNC Predator to secure the top seed in their region for the Leipzig Major. Despite their regional dominance and strong displays in the Major’s group stage, Fnatic once again suffered elimination in round two of the playoffs, this time courtesy of two close defeats to Team Secret and TNC Predator.
Fnatic continued their trend of regional dominance with a strong run through the ESL One Los Angeles 2020 Southeast Asia Closed Qualifier in February, to which they added an impressive run at DOTA Summit 12, where they won their first international event that included teams from outside their region since the XMG Captains Draft Invitational in April 2014. At DOTA Summit 12, Fnatic defeated the likes of Team Liquid, Cloud9, Evil Geniuses and OG Seed, which will serve as a huge morale boost for the team ahead of the first online Dota2 Major.
Although still miles from being regarded as one of the top Dota2 teams in the scene, Team Adroit have established themselves as a serious threat with a handful of strong showings against the top sides.
Adroit did not participate at The International 2019, but they saw some success in a few minor Dota2 tournaments towards the end of 2019, including gold medals at Battle of Dawn and ESL Clash of Nations Bangkok 2019. Adroit also secured a ticket for the MDL Chengdu Major with a third-place finish in SEA closed qualifiers, although they failed to claw their way out of the group stage in China.
In December 2019, Adroit finished ninth-10th at Leipzig Major SEA closed qualifiers and bounced back with a title-wining run at the Yabo Supreme Cup. But Marvin “Boombacs” Rushton and company failed to carry over the momentum into January, when they appeared at Elites Challenge S2 and finished seventh-eighth.
On a more positive note, Adroit saw some success at ESL One Los Angeles SEA closed qualifiers, where they secured the third seed, and later won the SEA division at WeSave! Charity play event after eliminating TNC Predator and Geek Fam.
Both sides have had their ups and downs since the start of the 2019/20 Dota Pro Circuit season. Adroit’s disappointing overall form is sprinkled with some upset wins against stronger teams, which inspires some optimism ahead of their clash with Fnatic.
Adroit’s last roster change came back in June 2019, when they signed Boombacs. Fnatic’s most recent two changes in their lineup came in September 2019, when they signed Nuengnara “23savage” Teeramahanon and Kam “Moon” Boon Seng. Since the last roster change these two sides have met twice, with Fnatic securing two perfect 2-0 wins.
While we would like to make a case for Adroit here, Fnatic are the stronger side and their dominant run through DOTA Summit 12 only further proves Jabz’s squad is ready to cause some serious damage at the ESL One LA Major. While Adroit are not to be underestimated, Fnatic look to be in a great form and could well notch another 2-0 win.
Although CS:GO fans might be disheartened hearing there will be only one Major tournament instead of two, the cancellation of the second Major will result in an increased prize pool of US $2 million for ESL One Rio – a record for a Counter-Strike esports tournament.
The announcement comes as no surprise, as a plethora of other esports events have been moved, postponed, or cancelled amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Valve postponed the ESL One Los Angeles Dota2 Major and outright cancelled the EPICENTER 2020 and DOTA Pit Minor tournaments, while Blizzard cancelled all March and April Overwatch League events.
“Our decision is an extremely tough one, but health and safety have to take absolute priority,” said Ulrich Schulze, Senior Vice President of Product at ESL.
“Given the very difficult circumstances for live events, we still wanted to give the Brazilian fans the CS:GO Major they deserve.
“We ask everyone to stay safe and we are pleased to be able to continue to deliver some quality CS:GO esports content to the community during these troubling times, while we prepare the Rio Major for November.”
The ESL also explained that fans who have already bought tickets for the Rio CS:GO Major can claim a full refund via Eventbrite or use the tickets to attend the rescheduled event at the Jeunesse Arena from November 19-22. Although the venue will remain the same, ESL has yet to unveil the exact dates for the Minors, nor for the first two stages of the Major tournament.
The hottest topic of discussion in the CS:GO community, however, is roster eligibility. As things stand now, CS:GO teams who finished top 14 at the Berlin StarLadder Major are required to keep the majority of their rosters for 14 months if they wish to retain their spot at the Rio Major, while teams who qualified for the Minors need to keep hold of 3/5 of their squad for eight months to compete at the regional events.
Michal “Carmac” Blicharz, Vice-President of Programming at ESL, said in a Reddit post that qualifications and invitations for the November Major will need to be “considered afresh” as there is “currently no official information on who is qualified and who is not, and how will that work”. Valve and ESL are still working to provide more answers, but it may take a while to get everything sorted.
The following 14 CS:GO teams have qualified for the 2020 ESL One Rio Major:
New Legends Stage
New Challengers Stage
The reigning IEM Katowice champions, Natus Vincere, will look to bounce back from a shock 0-2 defeat against North when they lock horns with BIG this Thursday in the second round of ESL Pro League Season 11.
Despite the coronavirus outbreak which has affected all of the esports scene, ESL Pro League S11 launched as intended but with one small change – the league is run entirely online, which can alter the performance of the teams. Natus Vincere were the first to fall victim to the change in format on Monday when they dropped the ball against their Danish counterparts North, who humiliated them with a 10-16 score on both Nuke and Dust II.
It’s hard to explain the exact effect online play has on the teams as opposed to LAN format; however, if there is one thing for certain, it is that upset wins are fairly common, and that is something Natus Vincere will hope to avoid this week.
NaVi have soared to new heights this year, with their title-winning run in Katowice catapulting them to the top of the CS:GO world rankings for the first time since April 2016. That result was no surprise, as the team have improved rapidly since they parted ways with Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kov��cs and replaced him with Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy.
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Still, there is a long road ahead of them before Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev and co. can prove their Katowice title was not a one-off. Hoisting the ESL Pro League trophy is exactly what they will look to achieve.
BIG entered ESL Pro League S11 as a replacement team, but the German squad have shown they are ready to leave a mark and become a thorn in the side of some of the strongest teams in Group B.
Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz and his crew began their ESL Pro League venture against Fnatic, which was billed as a one-sided bout where the Swedish squad should come out ahead with relative ease. That, however, was not the case, as it was BIG who claimed the W with impressive performances on Inferno (16-7) and Mirage (16-12).
All eyes were on Can “XANTARES” D?rtkarde?, who is known as one of the best online players in CS:GO esports, yet it was tabseN and Florian “syrsoN” Riche who put up the strongest performances with 1.25 and 1.22 ratings respectively. Tabsen also had a +16 KD, while syrsoN ended the series with +9.
Esports bookmakers have Natus Vincere priced as heavy favourites ($1.23). Anything can happen in an online match, however, so siding with BIG to take another scalp is very tempting at the $4.31 odds offered.
BIG have a better record on Inferno (75%-71%), Nuke (89%-44%), Overpass (25%-0%) and Vertigo (50%-0%), while NaVi hold an edge on Dust II (54%-44%) and Mirage (71%-59%). It��s also worth noting that NaVi defeated BIG in all of their last four meetings dating back to StarSeries i-League Season 7 in March 2019.
Siding with NaVi might be the reasonable thing to do here, but it’s very difficult to defend s1mple and his crew for their lacklustre performance against North. While they’re still the no.1 CS:GO team in the world, online Counter-Strike is not the same as LAN play.
BIG are by no means a stronger team than NaVi, but they can go toe-to-toe with NaVi in an online environment. Their success will heavily rely on XANTARES, who is regarded as an ‘online God’. If he can step up and deliver, BIG will have a legitimate chance to upset their Ukrainian adversaries.
The odds on BIG are way too generous for an online match, which is why we will gladly take our chances with the German squad.