IEM Cologne 2022 Overview
One of the biggest CSGO events of the year, IEM Cologne returns in 2022 at the Lanxess-Arena for another massive CSGO showdown. Formerly known as ELS One, this year, Cologne’s most known esports tournament, become part of the Intel Extreme Masters.
As per previous years, the tournament will take place in July this year and will have a prize of $1,000,000 USD.
More details soon!
Schedule
The event aims to start on 7 July and it will end on 17 July.
Format
Play-In: (July 5th – 6th)
The play-in will consist of a double-elimination bracket. The opening games will be played as Bo1 and the following matches as Bo3. The top 8 teams from the play-ins will advance into the Group Stage.
Group stage
Each group has eight teams, playing in BO3 format.
The top three teams of each group will advance to the Playoffs. The winners advance to the semifinals, the runners-up advance to the Quarter-finals as the High Seeds and 3rd place teams advance to the Quarter-finals as the Low Seeds.
Playoffs
The playoffs will be a single-elimination bracket, with The Quarterfinals & Semifinals being played as Bo3 and The Grand Final will be played as Bo5.
Prize Pool
The total prize pool for the event will be $1,000,000 USD. First place takes almost the half of it: $400,000, and 1800 Circuit Points, second place will receive $180,000 and 1400 points.
Participating teams
The names of the 24 participating teams will be announced soon. What we know at this point is how they will qualify for the tournament:
16 teams will qualify through the ESL: Road to Cologne event. 8 of them straight to the Group Stages and another 8 to the Play-in Stage.
The remaining teams will be decided as follows:
- 6 will receive a Wild Card invite
- 1 will qualify through EPEC Spring 2021
- 1 will qualify through ESL Meisterschaft
Previous Winners:
List of previous winners of the tournament (including previous substages):
| Date | Event Name | Winner |
|---|---|---|
| 20.08.2015 – 23.08.2015 | ESL One: Cologne 2015 | Fnatic |
| 05.07.2016 – 10.07.2016 | ESL One: Cologne 2016 | SK Gaming |
| 04.07.2017 – 09.07.2017 | ESL One: Cologne 2017 | SK Gaming |
| 03.07.2018 – 08.07.2018 | ESL One: Cologne 2018 | Natus Vincere |
| 07.02.2019 – 07.07.2019 | ESL One: Cologne 2019 | Team Liquid |
| 06.07.2021- 18.07.2021 | IEM XVI Cologne 2021 | Natus Vincere |
Find more in the Official Site of the event. Follow ESL on Twitch and Youtube to be updated with the IEM tournaments!
