IEM Katowice 2020: Prize, Format & More

IEM Katowice 2020 is upon us. The 2020 season of CS:GO has just begun with several qualifers underway alongside BLAST Premier Spring 2020 group stage happening each weekend until last week while the two rival leagues materialize – ESL Pro League & FLASHPOINT. Yet another DreamHack Open is around the corner prior to commencement of IEM Katowice 2020. The 2020 season will be blast for fans with uninterrupted blazing action!

The 7th edition of IEM will return to Spodek arena in Katowice, Poland with a whopping prize pool worth $500,000. The indoor stadium can accommodate 11,500 hardcore and roaring Counter-Strike fans. Katowice will host 16 teams between February 24 and March 1; 12 out of top 15 teams will mark their attendance at the Masters Champ event. IEM Katowice 2020 is a $1,000,000 Intel Grand Slam series event and a Master Champ event for ESL Pro Tour.

All five Intel Grand Slam Season 3 contenders – Astralis, mousesports, Evil Geniuses, Fnatic and Team Liquid will attend the event. Michal Blicharz from ESL revealed that a previous winner of IEM Katowice will bring trophy on the stage during the opening ceremony.

Participants

Format

16 teams are divided into two groups of 8 teams each. The teams will play in double-elimination best-of-three group stages with upper-brackets and lower-brackets. Two teams from upper-brackets and one team from lower-brackets from each group will advance to playoffs.

The winner from upper-brackets finals will advance to semi-finals while the loser will fight against lower-bracket finalist. The playoffs will feature single-elimination best-of-three format in quarter-final and semi-final while the grand finale will be a best-of-five encounter to seize glory.

The group stages will be conducted from 24th till 27th February while the playoffs will seal the weekend between 28th February and 1st March.

Talent Crew

Analyst Desk –

• Tres “stunna” Saranthus
• Chad “SPUNJ” Burchill
• Mathieu “Maniac” Quiquerez
• Jacob “Pimp” Winneche

Casting duos –

• Henry “HenryG” Greer & Alex “Machine” Richardson
• Anders Blume & Jason “moses” O’Toole
• Jason Kaplan & Tom “Tombizz” Bissmire

Stage Host –

• OJ Borg

Sideline Reporter

• Frankie Ward

Observers –

• Alexander “Rushly” Rush
• Jake “Jak3y” Elton

Streams

Two matches will be hosted simultaneously during group stages on primary and secondary stream. As we enter playoffs, the broadcast will be focused onto primary stream with one match at a time.

Prize Distribution

• 1st: $250,000
• 2nd: $100,000
• 3rd-4th: $40,000
• 5th-6th: $15,000
• 7th-8th: $7,000
• 9th-12th: $4,000
• 13th-16th: $2,500

Never miss the action, TalkEsport will be extensively covering the revered event.