Counter Strike fans, rejoice! Top tier Counter-Strike is back and we can’t get more excited than this. With less than a day left till we kick off IEM Katowice 2023, here’s everything you need to know about the Major!
About IEM Katowice 2023
Organized by ESL, the first Intel Grand Slam Major is set to kick off tomorrow and ends on 12th February. The venue for the playoffs is the Spodek Arena of Katowice. A prizepool of $1 million USD is up for grabs for the participating teams. 24 teams will be meeting each other on the maps to be crowned the winner of IEM Katowice 2023.
Enter the Hall of Heroes 🏆#IEM Katowice 2023
⚔️Play-In Stage: Feb 1-3
🔥Group Stage: Feb 4-7
🏟️Playoffs in the Spodek Arena: Feb 10-12 pic.twitter.com/tp63ZyVcMR— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) January 30, 2023
Participating Teams
Directly Qualified Teams
- FaZe Clan
- Team Vitality
- Outsiders
- Heroic
- Team Liquid
- Natus Vincere
- G2 Esports
- MOUZ
Play-In Teams
- Ninjas In Pyjamas
- Team Spirit
- Cloud9
- Complexity Gaming
- FURIA Esports
- MIBR
- IHC Esports
- Grayhound Gaming
- OG
- ENCE
- BIG
- Sprout
- PaiN Gaming
- Evil Geniuses
- Fnatic
- Permitta Esports
Format
Play-In
The play-in set will begin first with FURIA Esports facing Permitta Esports tomorrow. 8 of the 16 play-in teams will move on to the group stage. Play-ins will take place on February 1st-3rd. All of the opening matches will be a best-of-1. The following matches will follow a best-of-3 format.
Group Stage
February 4th-7th will witness the group stage matches. There will be two groups- A & B with 8 teams each. All matches will follow a best-of-3 format. The top three teams from each group advance to the Playoffs:
- Group stage winners directly advance to the semifinals
- Group stage runners-up advance to the quarterfinals as the High Seeds
- Finally, group stage second runners-up teams advance to the quarterfinals as the Low Seeds
Playoffs
The playoffs will be taking place on the last 3 days, February 10th-12th. Following a single elimination bracket, the quarter and semifinals will be a best-of-3. Meanwhile, the grand finals will be a best-of-five series between the finalists.
#IEM KATOWICE 2023 STARTS TOMORROW!
Check out the schedule for day 1 of the play-in stage below! 👇 pic.twitter.com/wAJqxWjxy5
— Intel® Extreme Masters (@IEM) January 31, 2023
All of the matches will be livestreamed on the ESL CSGO Twitch channel. Let’s see who gets crowned the king of Katowice 2023!
