Next week, the biggest event we’ve seen so far, the IEM XV World Championship will be taking off. Here’s all the details you need to know, and how to watch it!
Tournament’s background
Intel Extreme Masters, commonly known as IEM, is one of the longest running tournaments in Counter-Strike history. This event is going to be its 15th season and will feature all the best teams in the world.
How to qualify for the main event
Almost all of the teams participating at the event qualified through the Road to Katowice, a regional qualifier. The other teams got a spot via the ESL World Ranking or other qualifiers like the EPEC Winter 2020, and ESL Mistrzostwa Polski.
Prize Pool for IEM XV World Championship
For the IEM XV World Championship there is going to be a total of $1,000,000 USD that is to be distributed between all teams. Here below is the prize pool distribution list:
- 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
Tournament format
The IEM XV World Championship will start with the play-in stage. This phase is formatted with a double elimination bracket, where the opening matches are best of 1, and the rest are best of 3. Top 8 teams from the play-in stage will qualify to the group stage of the main event.
The group stage will consist of 2 double-elimination groups. Each group will consist of 8 teams which are seeded using ESL’s particular rankings. All of the matches in the group stage are set in a best of 3. The top 3 teams from both groups advance to the playoffs.
The playoffs will feature a single-elimination bracket where all matches are a best of 3, and the final is a best of 5. The winning team will be crowned as IEM XV World Champion.
Teams Participating
A total of 24 teams are participating, here is the full team participation list (sorted by qualification):
Directly Qualified Teams
- Heroic
- Team Vitality
- Astralis
- Natus Vincere
- G2 Esports
- FaZe Clan
- FURIA Esports
- Evil Geniuses
Play-In Teams
- Complexity Gaming
- Fnatic
- OG
- Ninjas In Pyjamas
- Team Liquid
- Team oNe
- MiBR
- Renegades
- BIG
- Mousesports
- Virtus.pro
- Gambit Esports
- Cloud9
- Team Spirit
- Movistar Riders
- Wisla Kraków
Schedule list
The event will commence on the 16th of February and will go on till the end of February, as it will finish on the 28th. The tournament will kick off with the Play-in, here are some of the first few matches:
Upper Bracket Round 1 – 16th February 2021
- BIG vs Movistar Riders – 12:00 CET
- Team Spirit vs Cloud9 – 12:00 CET
- Gambit Esports vs Team One – 12:00 CET
- Renegades vs Mousesports- 13:30 CET
- Virtus.pro vs Wisla Kraków – 13:30 CET
- Ninjas In Pyjamas vs Complexity- 13:30 CET
Streaming platform list
The IEM XV World Championship will stream on three of the official ESL CS:GO twitch channels which can be found on at the bottom of the event liquipedia page here.
Watch the IEM XV World Championship live stream on esportsguide.com
You can also watch the IEM XV World Championship live stream via our very own website. Providing an extensive list of the biggest esports together with streams for each esports match live today or upcoming matches.
Predictions
All the best teams from all over the world are participating in this event. If we’re going to have to base out predictions on recent results, we’d have to put our money on Natus Vincere, Ninjas In Pyjamas, as well as Complexity to take the win. However, this is CS:GO, an esport where anything can happen.
Be sure to keep yourself updated with www.esportsguide.com for more esports news!
