IEM Katowice 2021 Overview
The IEM Katowice or IEM Season XV – World Championship as the event is also called, is one of the biggest CSGO tournaments of 2021.
IEM Katowice became with the introduction of the new ESL Pro Tour an even more desired trophy as the event is now one of the two Masters Championships that will take place each year, the other one being ESL Cologne.
IEM Katowice 2021 will start on the 16th February and will end on the 28th of the same month.
Complete dates:
- February 16-17: Play-In
- February 18-21: Group Stage
- February 26-28: Playoffs
Tournament Format
Play-In Stage:
Stage will be played as Double-Elimination bracket with opening matches Best of 1 and all following matches are Bo3. The top eight teams advanced to the Group Stage
Group Stage:
Played as two double-elimination format (GSL) Groups each with eight teams. All matches are Bo3 and the top three teams from each group advance to the Playoffs:
- Group stage winners advance to the Semifinals
- Group stage runners-up advance to the Quarterfinals as the High Seeds
- Group stage 3rd place teams advance to the Quarterfinals as the Low Seeds
Playoffs:
IEM Katwice 20201 playoffs will be a single-Elimination bracket. The Quarterfinals & Semifinals are Bo3. The Grand Final is Bo5
Unfortunately, due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 event will not take place in Spodek.
Tournaments are planned to be played without an audience, but as in person competition hosted on a yet undisclosed location in Europe.
Teams qualified for IEM Katowice 2021
The 2021 event will feature a modified qualification format with the participating teams having several paths towards the big event.
Team can earn a direct qualification by winning the Road to Katowice events, through the ESL World Ranking or by winning the EPEC Winter and ESL Mistrzostwa leagues.
Complete list of teams qualified
| No. | Team |
|---|---|
| 1 | Heroic |
| 2 | Team Vitality |
| 3 | Astralis |
| 4 | Natus Vincere |
| 5 | G2 Esports |
| 6 | FaZe Clan |
| 7 | FURIA Esports |
| 8 | Evil Geniuses |
| 9 | Complexity Gaming |
| 10 | Fnatic |
| 11 | OG |
| 12 | Team Liquid |
| 13 | ex-Chaos EC |
| 14 | BOOM Esports |
| 15 | Renegades |
| 16 | TYLOO |
| 17 | BIG |
| 18 | mousesports |
| 19 | Virtus.pro |
| 20 | Gambit Esports |
| 21 | Cloud9 |
| 22 | Team Spirit |
| 23 | Illuminar Gaming |
| 24 | TBA Winner of the EPEC Winter |
Prize Pool
Compare to 2020, the overall prize pool doubled and in 2020 IEM offers a $1,000,000 prize pool divided as follows:
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1st | $400,000 |
| 2nd | $180,000 |
| 3rd-4th | $80,000 |
| 5th-6th | $40,000 |
| 7th-8th | $24,000 |
| 9th-12th | $16,000 |
| 13th-16th | $10,000 |
| 17th-20th | $4,500 |
| 21st-24th | $2,500 |
Read more about IEM Katowice
