IEM: New York has been announced by ESL on their Twitter which is scheduled to be held from 6th October onwards. This tournament will be held online across three regions including North America, Europe and CIS due to the ongoing global pandemic (COVID-19).
12 teams from the North America and CIS regions have been invited to this tournament with 4 slots from each region will have to compete in a closed qualifier in order to qualify for the same. These 4 teams will be invited on their basis of their current standings at the Regional Major Ranking (RMR) points system. As of now ESL has yet to make an announcement regarding the Closed Qualifier.
This tournament is also adjudged as the “Final Frontier” for the teams from NA and CIS as they will enter in a bid to qualify for the ESL Rio major. This does mean they would have to gain an upper hand in securing the RMR points.
As of now, ESL is offering 5 slots and a lone chance for the North and South American regions respectively at the Major. The CIS region has also been issued 5 berths at the Major. Top 5 teams from these regions will qualify in the following manner:
- Legends
- Challengers
- Contenders
As this will be a yet another Online tournament, the prize pool of $250,000 will be split up among the three regions, $140,000 for EU, $60,000 for NA, and $50,000 for the teams from CIS region.
The 12 teams invited from NA and CIS regions are:
| North America | CIS |
| Evil Geniuses | Spirit |
| Cloud9 | Natus Vincere |
| MIBR | Virtus.Pro |
| Triumph | Nemiga |
| 100 Thieves | Hard Legion |
| Liquid | Winstrike |
| Gen.G | Gambit Youngsters |
| FURIA | Espada |
| Qualifier | Qualifier |
| Qualifier | Qualifier |
| Qualifier | Qualifier |
| Qualifier | Qualifier |
Teams from Europe are yet to be disclosed by ESL, but all teams across these 3 formats will engage in a double-elimination group.
