ESL has confirmed that IEM Cologne 2021 will be a LAN event. The German esports organizer has made an update to its esports calendar, made an announcement on Twitter. IEM Cologne will be the first CS:GO LAN event of scale after COVID-19 stuck the world in the March of 2020.
IEM Cologne‘s prize pool of $1mn in offerings for the teams is considered to be the biggest event of this year for the ESL. It is scheduled to run from July 6 to July 18 2021.
The update to the schedule for the remainder of the year comes at a time when people are adapting to behavioral changes and stricter norms against the pandemic. The calendar features DreamHack Winters & IEM Summer which are scheduled for online execution. ESL One Cologne, IEM Fall & EPL: Season 14 Malta is set for a Studio environment, which will have no audiences.
IEM Cologne
However for IEM Winter, which is set to be in Asia in December this year is under preparation for a live environment, with live audiences for the first time after the pandemic.
IEM Cologne 2020 had been transferred to being conducted in an online format last year. This time though, it is the event that returns to players competing for the trophies on LAN!
