Mouz, BIG and C9 Among Invited for IEM Katowice 2021 Play-In

ESL have issued the final six invites for the Play-In Stage of IEM Katowice 2021 to the following teams: BIG, mousesports, Virtus.pro, Gambit Esports, Cloud9 and Team Spirit. The invites are based on the ESL world rating, which was updated after the conclusion of IEM XV – Global Challenge.

These teams will join Complexity, Fnatic, OG, Liquid, Chaos, BOOM, and TyLoo, who secured their places in the Play-In Stage through ESL Pro Tour tournaments. It should be noted that although the list includes Chaos, the organization will not be represented at the event as they have recently disbanded their CS:GO team. The club’s Twitter account responded to the news as follows: “Something came up, can’t make it”.

The final participant of the Play-In Stage will be the winner of ESL European Championship Winter 2020, an online event scheduled for January 18th – 19th. The event’s line-up includes Endpoint, Team LDLC and another six European teams.

The Play-In teams will compete in a double-elimination bracket for eight places in the group stage, where they will face the leaders of ESL Pro Tour – Heroic, Team Vitality, Astralis, Natus Vincere, G2 Esports, FaZe Clan, FURIA Esports and Evil Geniuses.

IEM Katowice 2021, also known as IEM XV – World Championship, is scheduled to be held on February 16th – 28th. If possible, the tournament will take place in Katowice, Poland, in a studio environment. The tournament’s prize pool is set at $1,000,000; it will also award a point towards Intel Grand Slam Season 3.