The city of Chicago is all set to be the new home of the Intel Extreme Masters tournament. The IEM is one of the biggest eSports events in North American and this year, it will move from Oakland to Chicago to further promote eSports in the region.
It has been officially revealed that IEM will be moving its competitive tournaments to Chicago from 2018 to 2020. IEM Chicago announced the 2018 competition is set to take place at the Wintrust Arena, while the United Center will host in 2019 and 2020. The United Center has a rich history, as it is also the home arena of the NBA Chicago Bulls and the NHL Blackhawks.
The rules of the competition will remain the same as they were in the last three tournaments. Sixteen of the very best Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams will be competing in Chicago on November 10-11, 2018. They will compete for the lion’s share of the $250,000 prize pool.
From the list of competing teams, the first 10 have received direct invites to the group stage, which takes place November 6-9. The last six slots will be decided through online qualifiers. Recently, one of the spots was filled, as North managed to defy the odds and secure their ticket to Chicago.
Last week, the organizers of the Intel Extreme Masters Chicago revealed the last two invited teams. NatusVincere and Fnatic will be joining eight others at the Wintrust Arena. The appearance of these Swedish and Russian-Ukrainian teams on the IEM list in Chicago is great news. It means that the competition will be attended by the top international CS:GO teams. As of August 18, eight of the top ten teams in the world have confirmed their presence for the US competition.
Do we have fans in Chicago? Tell @IEM that we should receive it! 😉 https://t.co/RdAy8pZ8xq — Natus Vincere (@natusvincere) August 18, 2018
Do we have fans in Chicago? Tell @IEM that we should receive it! 😉 https://t.co/RdAy8pZ8xq
— Natus Vincere (@natusvincere) August 18, 2018
10 of the 16 teams that will appear in IEM Chicago are:
At the time of writing, the fight for the remaining five slots is taking place. Two slots have been allotted to the European region while one slot has been given to each region from North America, South America, and Asia.
The IEM Chicago 2018 is also officially associated with Intel Grand Slam, organized by ESL and DreamHack. This means that an extra $1,000,000 is also on the line for the team that wins in four of the last ten major tournaments.
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